A major explosion at Iran's port of Shahid Rajaee has killed at least eight people and wounded 750, the interior minister told state TV.
Eskandar Momeni, at the site of the disaster, told the broadcaster: "This incident has left eight people dead and 750 injured.
"All resources from other cities and Tehran have been dispatched... and we hope to be able to extinguish the fire in the coming hours."
Although the cause of the blast was not immediately clear, the port's customs office said in a statement carried by state TV that it probably resulted from a fire that broke out at the hazmat and chemical materials storage depot.
State media said the "massive explosion" at the country's largest commercial port has intensified and could spread.
"The intensity of the fire in Shahid Rajaee Port has increased and it is possible that the fire could spread to other areas and containers", the broadcaster said of the blaze which has been burning for around ten hours.
It said all schools and offices in the city were ordered closed for tomorrow.
"Schools, offices, and universities in Bandar Abbas city will be closed Sunday", to allow authorities to focus on the emergency effort as smoke spreads in the region, the Provincial head of Crisis Management Mehrdad Hassanzadeh said, quoted by the state television.
Footage on state TV showed thick columns of black smoke billowing from the port where many containers are stored, with helicopters deployed to fight the flames.
Three Chinese nationals were "lightly injured", China's state broadcaster CCTV reported, citing its Bandar Abbas consulate.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian expressed sympathy for the victims of the deadly blast, adding he had "issued an order to investigate the situation and the causes", sending Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni to look into the incident.
Images from the official IRNA news agency showed rescuers and survivors walking along a wide boulevard carpeted with debris.
Flames engulfed a truck trailer, and blood stained the side of a crushed car.
Containers stacked at the port appeared to have buckled in the blast.
Shahid Rajaee, more than 1,000km south of Tehran, is Iran's most advanced container port, according to IRNA.
It is located 23km west of Bandar Abbas, the Hormozgan provincial capital, and near the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of world oil output passes.
Containers exploded
Mehrdad Hassanzadeh, head of the province's crisis management authority, told state TV that "the cause of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area".
"We are currently evacuating and transporting the injured to nearby medical centres," he said.
The explosion was so powerful that it was felt and heard about 50km away, Fars news agency reported, with residents saying they could feel the ground shake even at a distance.
"The shockwave was so strong that most of the port buildings were severely damaged," Tasnim news agency reported.
The state-owned National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company said in a statement carried by local media that "the explosion at Shahid Rajaee Port has no connection to refineries, fuel tanks, distribution complexes or oil pipelines".
It added that "Bandar Abbas oil facilities are currently operating without interruption".
The rare explosion comes several months after one of Iran's deadliest work accidents in years.
The coal mine blast in September, caused by a gas leak, killed more than 50 people at Tabas in the east of the country.
The explosion also came as Iranian and US delegations met in Oman for high-level talks on Iran's nuclear programme.
