Eighteen people died Tuesday night in a powerful explosion in a clinic in northern Tehran, the semi-official news agency Isna reported, citing emergency medical services. The explosion, which took place at the Sina Athar health center, also caused damage to surrounding buildings and sent a plume of thick black smoke into the sky, state television reported. "An explosion was reported at 8:56 p.m. (6:26 p.m. in Paris) followed by a fire at the Sina Athar clinic , " rescue workers said in a statement. "The deaths of 13 people have been confirmed and six others have also been injured and transferred to a hospital", they added, before later reporting a new death toll of 18. Fifteen of the victims were women according to state television.
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Tehran fire department spokesman Jalal Maleki said on state television that the explosion occurred when gas cylinders caught fire in the basement of the clinic. Some of the victims "were on the upper floors (...) they were either patients or people accompanying them," he said. "Unfortunately they lost their lives because of the heat and the thick smoke , " he said. The fire was later brought under control, according to emergency services.
Another explosion had shaken the Iranian capital during the night of Thursday to Friday. A gas tank exploded in southeast Tehran, in the Parchin sector, near a military site inspected in 2015 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), according to the Iranian Defense Ministry . The explosion was caused by the leaking of gas tanks, authorities said. The Parchin site was inspected by the IAEA before the signing of an international nuclear agreement in 2015. The site was in particular suspected of having housed conventional explosion tests applicable to nuclear power, which the Islamic Republic had then denied.
