Fire Contained At In Iran's Largest Shiite Shrine
A fire broke out on Friday night in the compound of Iran's largest Shiite shrine in northeastern Iran but was quickly extinguished.
A fire broke out on Friday night in the compound of Iran's largest Shiite shrine in northeastern Iran but was quickly extinguished.
According to IRNA, the fire started from one of the parked cleaning machines in the courtyard of the Imam Reza shrine, the eighth imam of Shiites, in the city of Mashhad in Khorasan-Razavi Province, but fire engines quickly arrived at the scene and put it out.
According to the report, the cause of the incident was under investigation.
An official with the custodianship of the shrine, Mostafa Feizi, said no one was injured in the incident.
He added that the situation in the shrine is back to normal, and visitors face no problems or limitations.
The shrine is the largest religious complex housing a tomb in Iran and one of the country's most-visited sites. It hosts millions of pilgrims every year, mostly Iranians and Shiite pilgrims from neighboring countries such as Iraq and Pakistan.
In a rare incident earlier this month, a man said to be a foreigner, stabbed three clerics in the shrine, killing one of them instantly while another one succumbed to injuries at the hospital. The assailant was arrested, along with four suspected collaborators.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi alleged that “one of the deviant agents of American [-made] Takfiri groups” was behind the stabbing attack.
Iranian officials use Takfiri as a vague umbrella term to refer to Sunni militant armed groups and individuals in Iran and abroad.
