Blast at Iran refinery as Ahmadinejad visits

PanARMENIAN.Net - An explosion blamed on a gas leak rocked Iran's largest oil refinery shortly before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived at the site for a scheduled visit Tuesday, an Iranian news agency reported.

The semi-official Fars news agency said the blast took place in the morning hours, just before Ahmadinejad was to inaugurate an expansion project at the refinery in the southwestern city of Abadan. At least 20 people were injured from the blast, which set of a fire at the site, the report said. The explosion was blamed on a "gas leakage" but there were no further details.

Another report, by the semi-official Mehr news agency said at least two people were killed and that the blast took place while Ahmadinejad was visiting. It said the president ordered a special plane to airlift those critically injured to Tehran.

The state television, meanwhile, said the explosion happened after Ahmadinejad had left the site. A live broadcast by the TV showed the president speaking to local officials at the refinery.

The reports said firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze that followed the explosion. But the discrepancies in the media reports about the sequence of events at Abadan could not immediately be reconciled. Officials at the site could not be reached for comment, AP reported.