Azernews.Az

TEHRAN – An accidental blast Tuesday at an Iranian oil refinery killed one person and wounded 25 during a visit by president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was not affected and went on to make a televised speech, AFP reported.

"The fire in a petrol-making unit in Abadan refinery was unintentional," Hamid Qenati, the governor of the city of Abadan was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency. "Unfortunately 25 people were either superficially burnt or intoxicated through breathing the gas emitted from the fire. Also unfortunately one person was killed due to severe burns."

According to the IRNA's report, the fire occurred in the unit which was inaugurated Tuesday.

Fars news agency said, "A technical fault led to an explosion in one of the units of this refinery. The fire was immediately controlled ... The blast did not interrupt the president's program."

Several accidental explosions were reported last year in Iranian oil and gas infrastructure, resulting in the sacking of some local officials accused of negligence. The main pipeline bringing gas from southern Iran to Tehran has been sabotaged twice this year already, according to Iranian media reports.

Abadan is located in the southwestern province of Khuzestan which has a large Arab population and borders Iraq.

Demonstrations called by militant groups left several dozen dead in mid-April, especially in the provincial capital, Ahvaz, according to unverifiable reports by several advocacy groups, including Human Rights Watch.