Residents of Tehran woke up Sunday morning to find it still dark outside, an apocalyptic scene created by thick black smoke from oil depots hit by Israeli strikes.
As the sun dimmed, distraught people in the Iranian capital had to turn on their lights to see through the darkness.
“I thought my alarm clock had broken,” a driver in his fifties told AFP on condition of anonymity.
By 10:30 a.m. local time (0700 GMT), cars needed headlights to drive along Valiyasr Street, the main north-south thoroughfare through the city.
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Black smoke from burning fuel depots mingled with heavy gray rain clouds in the sky, compounding the hazy atmosphere.
The smoke spread across the sprawling city, usually home to more than 10 million people.
The fuel depot strikes were the first time Iranian oil infrastructure had been targeted in the nine-day war.
The fighting began last weekend when the United States and Israel launched an attack on Iran and has since engulfed the Middle East.
Israel’s military confirmed it had hit “fuel storage facilities in Tehran”, which it said were used to “maintain military infrastructure”.
Four oil depots and a petroleum logistics site in and around Tehran were damaged. Local officials said six people were killed and 20 injured at the scene. AFP could not independently verify these numbers.
Even on Sunday, oil was smoking in one of the depots.
More than 12 hours after the strikes, flames flared and erupted, an AFP reporter witnessed.
Israel attacked fuel depots in Tehran during the 12-day war last June.
Toxic fumes
On the streets of Tehran, security forces directed traffic wearing special coats and masks to protect themselves.
Officials warned that the noxious fumes could cause breathing problems and irritate the eyes, urging residents to stay indoors.
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said “significant amounts of toxic hydrocarbons, sulfur and nitrogen oxides” had been released into the air.
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Windows of nearby buildings were blown out by the blast.
Dozens of kilometers from fuel depots, residents swept their balconies, covered in puddles of rain and fuel.
Tehran’s governor, Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, said on Sunday morning that fuel deliveries in the Iranian capital had been “temporarily disrupted”.
He said the issue is being resolved.
Currently, each vehicle in Tehran is limited to 20 liters of fuel.
On Sunday morning, there were long queues at petrol stations, with AFP around 40 cars queuing at one.
Sunday is the first day for work in Iran since a week-long holiday was declared following the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli airstrike last weekend.
During the 12-day war last June, around six million residents fled Tehran, according to local media.
However, this time most of them stayed. The United Nations estimated 100,000 people had fled the capital on Tuesday.
In the first days of the new war, Tehran resembled a ghost town.
But this is not the case anymore, more pedestrians and cars are now taking to the streets.
On Sunday, roughly half the shops in Tehran were open — even in the dark.
(With FRANCE 24 AFP)
(tags to translate)Middle East
