At least 103 people were killed after two blasts were reported near the tomb of Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in Iran's Kerman on Wednesday, reports emerged.
The explosion which occurred on the fourth anniversary of Soleimani's assassination by the US, has reportedly wounded over 100 people.
In videos that circulated on social media, thousands of people could be seen running pillar to post and panicking, while some lay on the streets in a pool of blood.
According to Iranian media reports, the first blast occurred at 14:50 local time (11:20 GMT), about 700m (2,300ft) from the Garden of Martyrs cemetery around the Saheb al-Zaman mosque. The second took place about 15 minutes later, around 1km away from the cemetery, they said.
State-run Islamic Republic News Agency quoted the province’s deputy governor as saying that it’s not yet clear whether the blasts were caused by a gas explosion or a “terrorist attack."
Notably, Soleimani was seen as the most powerful figure in Iran after the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, before he was killed in a US drone strike in neighboring Iraq in 2020. On January 3, 2020, the US targeted and killed Soleimani, head of Iran's Quds Force, at Baghdad International Airport.
