TEHRAN: One person was killed and two others injured in an incident at an oil refinery in southern Iran on Thursday, state media reported.

The incident occurred during repair work on a furnace of the Aftab oil refinery company, a private firm located near the port city of Bandar Abbas, said the official IRNA news agency.

The company said in a statement that the incident was “minor” and that it resulted in the injury of two people who required outpatient treatment.

But Bandar Abbas governor Habib Bahadori told IRNA that one person was killed and that the condition of one of the injured was “not good”.

In mid-February, two explosions hit gas pipelines in the southwest and south of Iran, causing no casualties but disrupting supplies to at least three provinces.

The Islamic republic accused its arch enemy Israel of being behind the blasts.

There were contradictory reports about casualties, with several local news agencies saying one person died and three were injured. Earlier, Iranian state news agency IRNA said several people had been killed and injured. Later, the refinery’s operating company said in a statement the facility did not sustain any major damage and the injured have been deemed in a stable condition.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2024