Witnesses refute rumors about blast, power outage near Tehran

Eyewitnesses have refuted rumors circulating across various news outlets and social media platforms about explosions and power outage in and near Tehran Province.

News ID: 450386

Date: 11 July 2020 - 19:09

Rasa - The rumors began surfacing early Friday local time, pointing to an explosion and a blackout in the province’s Shahriar county.

Other rumors also alleged that the incidents had taken place in the town of Garmdarreh in Karaj county of Alborz province that neighbors Tehran.

The semi-official Fars news agency, however, ruled out the rumors on its official Telegram channel.

The channel posted video of locals affirming that they did not either know or hear about any such alleged incidents at those places.

Locals said on Twitter they had just heard three or four mortar-like sounds similar to firing of anti-aircraft weapons just after midnight.

The rumors and reports emerged in the wake of a number of incidents across the country, including an explosion last Thursday that hit the Natanz nuclear facility.

The blast at the nuclear site has been followed by an Israeli media campaign aiming to create the impression that Tel Aviv was behind the explosion.

On Wednesday, though, Nour News, an Iranian news outlet affiliated to the country’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), the Islamic Republic’s top security body, warned that the campaign could invite “serious risks” for the occupying regime.

The media fanfare seeks to “lend plausibility to Israel’s role” in a series of recent incidents in Iran, including the blast at the Natanz site, the outlet said.

It, however, warned that the masterminds of the media campaign happened to ignore “Iran’s new social platforms and political circumstances” that could bring about “imponderable reactions” for Israel in case of prolongation of the propaganda.