TEHRAN (Agencies)
Ten people were killed and at least 160 wounded when an explosion ripped through a mosque in Iran's southern city of Shiraz during evening prayers by a prominent cleric, officials said Sunday, dismissing earlier reports of an attack.
Initial reports said the explosion late Saturday was caused by a bomb but there was later uncertainty over its cause, with top regional officials insisting the blast had not been an attack but an accident.
"The incident could have happened as a result of negligence. A while ago at this site there was an exhibition commemorating the (1980-1988) Iran-Iraq war," Commander Ali Moayeri, police chief of Fars province, told Fars news agency.
"The munitions left at the site could have been the reason for this explosion," he added. The agency said he ruled out any act of sabotage.
State news agency IRNA, quoting emergency services, said that 160 people had been wounded and 10 killed in the blast, raising previous tolls.
The massive explosion in the men's section of the mosque took place at around 9:00 pm (1630 GMT) during an evening prayer sermon by local cleric Hojatoleslam Anjavinejad, the Fars news agency quoted local officials as saying.
Television pictures showed shards of glass and piles of debris at the site of the blast while huge crowds gathered to await news of loved ones.
"Initial surveys have proved that no bomb was involved and therefore there have been other probable causes," the governor of the local Fars province, Ebrahim Azizi, was quoted as saying by IRNA.
Deadly attacks in Iran have become extremely rare events in the past two decades, although the first years after the 1979 Islamic revolution were marked by a succession of bomb blasts by outlawed opposition groups.
Shiraz is one of Iran's most famous cities and a popular destination with foreign tourists due to its proximity to important ancient sites from the Achaemenian Empire from 550-331 BC. |
