Report: Blast kills 7 in steel mill in Iran

TEHRAN - The Associated Press

AFP file photo

A blast caused by leftover ammunition killed at least seven workers including foreign nationals at a steel mill in the central Iranian city of Yazd, the official IRNA news agency reported today.

IRNA said the blast late Sunday at the privately-owned factory wounded 12 other workers. It did not report the nationality and number of the foreigners injured.

Local parliamentarian Ali Akbar Oliaw was quoted as blaming the blast on leftover ammunition which arrived at the factory with some scrap metal.

Explosions at Iranian industrial sites are occasionally reported by the media, and are mostly blamed on old equipment, lack of maintenance and inappropriate technology.

Some officials have blamed the poor maintenance on the economic sanctions placed on Iran by the U.S. and other countries over Tehran's disputed nuclear activities. Iran denies Western allegations that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Three years ago, the Iranian media reported that a homemade bomb had killed 12 people in the southern city of Shiraz. But officials quickly amended their explanation for the blast, saying it was an accident possibly caused by ammunition left over from a recent military exhibition in the mosque.