You can hear the fear of the screams there.
According to Iranian state media,
officials described the explosions. They are calling these explosions A
terror attack.
CNN's Nada Bashir is following this for us.
Nada. What is the latest?
Well, this is certainly a developing story,
John. We are still getting more details from officials and
media on the ground in Iran.
But in the last hour or so we have seen
that death toll steadily rising,
at least 103 killed and 141 injured,
according to state media in Iran,
citing officials on the ground.
Some of those injured are said to be in a
critical condition and we have seen a dramatic footage emerging
from the scene showing crowds running away from the site
of the blast we have seen.
Ambulances and emergency services. The ring rushing people to nearby
hospitals.
Now, of course, we are still getting more details around
the specifics around these twin blasts.
According to state media, again citing officials on the ground,
the first blast took place about 700 metres away from
the burial site of the late Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.
The second blast took place about a kilometre away from
the checkpoints and path in which pilgrims had been passing
through to visit the burial site.
Now important to know that there would have been huge
crowds at the time of.
These blasts today marks four years.
Since the commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in AUS strike
on Baghdad International Airport ordered by then U.S.
President Donald Trump, so we would have been expecting to
see huge crowds around there.
And of course this comes at a time of heightened
tensions in the region.
And while we are still waiting to get more details
around the specifics of the motive perhaps behind the attack,
who may have carried out the attack,
Iranian state media, again citing officials have characterised this as
a terrorist attack.
But again there are tensions mounting around the region.
Particularly when it comes to groups that are either allies
to or backed by Iran,
that is certainly the case here in Lebanon.
We are today expecting to hear from the Secretary General
of the Iran backed group,
Hezbollah. The Secretary general has also expected to speak in
just about an hour or so.
So we will be waiting to see what he has
to say about the situation in Iran and of course
commemorating the death of Qasem Soleimani.
Important to note, of course,
that this is just a day after we saw another
attack here in Beirut.
In the building behind me,
a senior Hamas commander, Salah al Auri,
killed in a strike on Tuesday evening.
According to AUS official, that strike was carried out by
Israel.
Hamas certainly pointing the finger squarely at Israel,
but at this stage, Israeli officials neither claiming responsibility nor
denying responsibility for that strike.