A huge explosion and a huge fire took place tonight (Wednesday) at a power plant in the city of Nishapur, in the province of Khorasan in northeastern Iran.
According to Iranian media reports, the blast and the fire led to a power outage from the power plant and a series of severe power outages in the country’s second largest city, Mashhad.
The director of the power plant, Jalal Bahshtian, told the Fars news agency that: "No injuries were caused as a result of the serious accident. We hope to be able to restore the electricity generation to its former state in the coming hours."
However, media outlets affiliated with the opposition have reported that there may have been casualties in the blast and that the extent of the damage to the transformer farm is severe, which could result in multiple power outages in the coming days. Also, although the official media treated the incident as an accident, the media affiliated with the opposition did not rule out the possibility that it was a sabotage.
