Explosion Reported in West Tehran, Denied by Official

A general view of Tehran city, in Tehran, Iran June 12, 2020. (Reuters)
A general view of Tehran city, in Tehran, Iran June 12, 2020. (Reuters)
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Explosion Reported in West Tehran, Denied by Official

A general view of Tehran city, in Tehran, Iran June 12, 2020. (Reuters)
A general view of Tehran city, in Tehran, Iran June 12, 2020. (Reuters)

An explosion was heard in western Tehran on Friday, state broadcaster IRIB said, citing online reports that a senior official in that part of the city denied.

IRIB said power was cut in the area of the city suburbs where the blast occurred. It provided no further information about the cause of the blast or possible casualties.

The governor of Qod city, Leila Vaseghi, was quoted by the semi-official Fars News agency as saying no explosion had occurred, but that there was a power outage that lasted about five minutes.

It was not immediately clear if the reported incident had taken place in Qod or in a different area of Western Tehran, and residents contacted by Reuters in other parts of the city said they had heard no explosion.

There have been multiple explosions around military, nuclear and industrial facilities in the past week.

Two people were killed in an explosion at a factory in the south of Tehran, state news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday.

Last Thursday, a fire broke out at a ground level building at Iran’s underground Natanz facility, the centerpiece of the country’s uranium enrichment program, which authorities said had caused significant damage.

Also last week, 19 people were killed in an explosion at a medical clinic in the north of Tehran, which an official said was caused by a gas leak.

On June 26, an explosion occurred east of Tehran near the Parchin military and weapons development base that authorities said was caused by a leak at a gas storage facility in an area outside the base.



One Dead, 31 Wounded in Russian Strike on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia

A view shows debris on a road near buildings damaged by Russian military strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows debris on a road near buildings damaged by Russian military strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
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One Dead, 31 Wounded in Russian Strike on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia

A view shows debris on a road near buildings damaged by Russian military strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
A view shows debris on a road near buildings damaged by Russian military strikes, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the town of Pokrovsk in Donetsk region, Ukraine January 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Russia unleashed a drone and missile strike on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia overnight, killing one, wounding 31 others and leaving tens of thousands without power or heat, officials said on Thursday.
The attack destroyed an energy facility and cut power to more than 20,000 residents and heat to some 17,000, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov, Reuters said.
He said Russian forces struck the city with drones first, then with ballistic missiles during an air-raid alert lasting more than six hours.
Among the wounded was a two-month-old infant as well as rescuers who had responded to the first wave of the attack, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on social media.
Early on Thursday, police and rescue workers combed through the rubble of a decimated apartment building and helped evacuate elderly residents. One building was destroyed and another 30 were damaged, Fedorov said.
A resident who was searching the gutted remains of his apartment described the attack.
"I flew off the couch to get dressed, and, running to the cabinet, I was covered in debris, after which I climbed out and heard my wife screaming," Serhiy, 35, said.
Zaporizhzhia, a strategic industrial city near front-line fighting, has come under frequent attack by Russian forces.
Kyiv's air force said Russia had fired four ballistic missiles at the city, part of a mass overnight attack on Ukraine that also included 92 drones.
Air defenses shot down 57 and another 27 were "locationaly lost", it added.
Russia has carried out regular air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities behind the front line of its three-year-old invasion, targeting the country's weakened energy grid in particular.
On Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Moscow's forces had attacked Ukraine's energy system 1,200 times since 2022.
New US President Donald Trump is pushing for an end to the conflict and Russian President Vladimir Putin is concerned about its impact on Russia's economy but Ukraine says Moscow's insistence on retaining conquered territory is a non-starter.