A blast in a mosque in Iran that killed at least 10 people was an accident and not an attack, a senior Interior Ministry official said on Sunday.

Iranian media had reported that a bomb exploded in a crowded mosque in the southern city of Shiraz on Saturday evening, also wounding more than 160 people.

"Last night's explosion in Shiraz was as a consequence of an accident and not the planting of a bomb," the official IRNA news agency quoted the deputy interior minister in charge of national security, Abbas Mohtaj, as saying.

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He did not give details, but state Press TV television said the blast may have been "caused by explosives left behind from an earlier exhibition commemorating" the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

The semi-official Fars News Agency carried a similar report.

"Based on the initial evaluation, the Saturday night explosion ... has not been intentional or sabotage," it quoted the commander of the security forces in the southern Fars province, Ali Moayedi, as saying.

"The cause of the incident was probably laxness since a defense fair was held at this place some time ago. There is a possibility that the remaining ammunition at this place was the factor behind this explosion," Moayedi said.

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