By Fredrik Dahl and Hashem Kalantari
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A blast in a mosque in Iran that killedat least 10 people was an accident and not an attack, a seniorInterior Ministry official said on Sunday.
Iranian media had reported that a bomb exploded in acrowded mosque in the southern city of Shiraz on Saturdayevening, also wounding more than 160 people.
"Last night's explosion in Shiraz was as a consequence ofan accident and not the planting of a bomb," the official IRNAnews agency quoted the deputy interior minister in charge ofnational security, Abbas Mohtaj, as saying.
He did not give details, but state Press TV television saidthe blast may have been "caused by explosives left behind froman earlier exhibition commemorating" the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
The semi-official Fars News Agency carried a similarreport.
"Based on the initial evaluation, the Saturday nightexplosion ... has not been intentional or sabotage," it quotedthe commander of the security forces in the southern Farsprovince, Ali Moayedi, as saying.
"The cause of the incident was probably laxness since adefence fair was held at this place some time ago. There is apossibility that the remaining ammunition at this place was thefactor behind this explosion," Moayedi said.
Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said the investigationwas continuing.
"The latest news we have ... is that there was no firmstance by police and security officials as the investigation isstill ongoing," Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters."Therefore no pre-judgement can be made about the incident."
Late on Saturday, Fars quoted a police official as saying a"hand-made" device had been planted in the mosque.
State television urged people in Shiraz, a city of morethan one million people and also a popular tourist destination,to donate blood for the wounded and said all nurses in the cityhad been called to report for work.
Iranian media said on Saturday the death toll might rise assome of the wounded were in a critical condition.
IRNA news agency said the blast took place during anaddress by a cleric in the city's Shohada mosque.
A 20-year-old woman who was wounded by the blast said therewere about 800 people inside the mosque at the time. "After weheard an explosion, there was smoke everywhere," SaeedehGhorbani said.
Security is normally tight in Shi'ite Muslim Iran and bombattacks have been rare in recent years. But several people werekilled in 2005 and 2006 in blasts in a southwestern provincewith a large Sunni Arab population.
Tehran has in the past accused Britain and the UnitedStates of trying to destabilise the Islamic Republic bysupporting ethnic minority rebels operating in sensitive borderareas.
(Additional reporting by Hossein Jaseb; Writing by FredrikDahl; Editing by Catherine Evans)
