Huge explosion in battery workshop near Tehran kills 1, damages buildings

TEHRAN, Iran — A huge explosion in a battery workshop southwest of Tehran on Friday killed one person and damaged dozens of cars and buildings, Iranian media reported.

The explosion in Nasim Shahr county “completely destroyed the battery workshop, killed one and caused another (person) to lose a limb,” local fire brigade chief Iraj Torkamani told Tasnim news agency.

The cause of the explosion was still unclear and investigations were underway, he added.

Recent months have seen a mysterious series of blasts and blazes that have occurred throughout the country.

While many of the incidents have been blamed on Iran’s crumbling infrastructure, there has been speculation that Israel or the US could have been behind some of the blasts, particularly the July 2 explosion at the Natanz nuclear facility.

The explosion, which foreign media reports have attributed to Israel or the US, damaged an advanced centrifuge development and assembly plant. It has been reported by some experts to have significantly set back Iran’s nuclear program,

Iran said the blast was the “result of sabotage” but has not named the suspects behind it.