Iran media: Scores injured in explosion at chemical factory

By NASSER KARIMI
Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An explosion at a chemical factory in southern Iran has injured scores of people, most of them lightly. The country’s state TV reported on Tuesday that a leak from an ammonium tank caused the blast on Monday evening in the southern city of Firouzabad in Fars province, located about 770 kilometers, or 480 miles, south of the capital of Tehran. It said that firemen were able to quickly extinguish the blaze. The chief of the provincial health department said that out of 133 injured who were taken to local hospitals, mostly factory workers, 114 were later released after treatment. A nearby major road closed after the explosion was reopened on Tuesday.