A strike on Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant could trigger a disaster on the scale of Chernobyl, the head of Russia's state atomic agency has warned. Rosatom CEO Alexey Likhachev sounded the alarm following reports that Israeli forces targeted the facility - Iran's only operational nuclear power station - located on the Gulf coast.

Al Jazeera journalist Virginia Pietromarchi said there was "no information on damage yet," but warned Gulf countries had long feared environmental catastrophe if the site was ever attacked. The strike came just hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin said more than 200 Russian staff were working at Bushehr. With Russian lives possibly at risk and the prospect of radioactive fallout, Mr Putin is unlikely to take the reported strike lightly. The Kremlin has not yet issued a formal response.

On Thursday defence minister Israel Katz appeared to threaten Ayatollah Khamemei himself following the attacks on the Soroka Medical Centre in Beersheba. Posting on X, he said: "The cowardly Iranian dictator sits deep in his fortified bunker and fires targeted shots at hospitals and residential buildings in Israel. These are war crimes of the most serious kind - and Khamenei will be held accountable for his crimes. The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to increase the intensity of attacks against strategic targets in Iran and against government targets in Tehran."

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