By Fredrik Dahl and Hashem Kalantari
TEHRAN (Reuters) - A blast in a mosque in Iran that killedat least 12 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. About 200 people more were wounded.
"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 security forces in the southern Fars province,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 Mohammad Ali Hosseinisaid the investigation was continuing, and "therefore nopre-judgement can be made about the incident".
State television quoted the governor of Fars province assaying the death toll had risen to 12 from nine initiallyreported after the blast. Iranian media had said the figuremight rise as some of the wounded were in a critical condition.
The explosion took place in the male section of Shiraz'sShohada mosque during an address by a cleric. Fars on Saturdayquoted a police official as saying a "hand-made" device hadbeen planted in the building.
People in Shiraz, a city of more than one millioninhabitants and also a popular tourist destination, were urgedto donate blood for the wounded and all nurses in the city wereasked to report for work.
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; Editing byCatherine Evans)
