Iran revises down death toll from Kerman attacks to 84

Tehran, Jan 5 (IANS) Iran's Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi has revised from 95 to 84 the death toll from two explosions near the burial site of slain Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in the southeastern city of Kerman.

He made the announcement on Thursday while visiting some of those injured in the terror attacks at Shahid Bahonar Hospital of Kerman, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the Iranian Students' News Agency.

Vahidi put the number of the injured at 284, of which 220 were hospitalized, with some in critical condition and in intensive care units.

The minister said the death toll could rise in the coming hours or days.

Commenting on the situation in Kerman, the minister said that the security, law enforcement and intelligence apparatuses have taken full control of the case, as calm and normalcy is restored.

Elaborating on the reason for the drop in the death toll, Jafar Miadfar, head of Iran's National Medical Emergency Organization, told the official news agency IRNA on Thursday that in such incidents, miscalculations were possible as there were many severed limbs scattered on the ground, some of which could be counted as one whole body.

He added that the other reason for the inaccurate death toll was calculating some of the victims' names twice.

In a live interview with the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network (IRINN) on Wednesday, Iranian Health Minister Bahram Einollahi revised the death toll from 103 to 95.

The two blasts occurred some 20 minutes apart at around 15:00 local time as many people gathered at the cemetery to mark the fourth anniversary of Soleimani's death in a US drone strike.

The first blast was about 700 meters from Soleimani's tomb, and the second was 1,000 meters away, the IRNA reported.

Rahman Jalali, deputy governor of the Kerman province, said the explosions were carried out by "terrorists," the IRNA reported.

The Iranian government has declared Thursday a day of national mourning.