UPDATE 4-Bomb blast in south Iran mosque kills 9, wounds 105

(Updates casualty toll, adds witness quotes)

By Zahra Hosseinian and Hossein Jaseb

TEHRAN, April 12 (Reuters) - A bomb exploded in a mosque in the southern Iranian city Shiraz on Saturday, killing at least nine people and wounding more than 100, Iranian media reported.

Ambulances rushed to the scene of the blast in a crowded district of the city, state television said.

"At least nine people were killed and 105 injured in the blast," the semi-official Fars news agency quoting a local hospital official as saying.

The death toll was expected to rise because some of the wounded were in critical condition, the official said.

State television urged people in Shiraz to donate blood for the wounded and said that all nurses in the city had been called to report for work.

The official IRNA news agency said the bomb exploded during an address by a cleric in the Shohada mosque in Shiraz.

Fars said that on Saturday nights the cleric usually gave speeches on the Baha'i faith, an offshoot of Islam considered heretical by the country's Shi'ite Muslim establishment. Its members claim they face discrimination and persecution in Iran.