By IINA,
Tehran : At least 10 people have been killed and more than 150 wounded yesterday in an explosion at a mosque in the southern Iranian city of Shiraz. The blast “may have been caused by explosives left behind from an earlier exhibition commemorating” the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, Press TV reported. 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.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said the investigation was continuing. “The latest news we have … is that there was no firm stance by police and security officials as the investigation is still ongoing,” Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a weekly news conference. “Therefore no pre-judgment can be made about the incident,” he said. Fars quoted a police official as saying a “hand-made” device had been planted in the mosque. A local hospital official said the death toll was expected to rise. State television urged people in Shiraz to donate blood for the wounded and said all nurses in the city had been called to report for work.
The official IRNA news agency said the blast took place during an address by a cleric in the Shohada mosque in Shiraz. A 20-year-old woman wounded by the blast said there were about 800 people inside the mosque when the bomb exploded. “After we heard an explosion, there was smoke everywhere,” Saeedeh Ghorbani said. Shiraz, about 900 km south of the capital Tehran, is a major tourist destination because of its closeness to a number of important ancient sites. It has not been, however, a target of the isolated bomb attacks which have occurred in Iran in recent years.