Iranian state television quotes a spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as saying the death toll from an explosion at an Iranian military base today has risen to 27 people. 

The explosion ocurred at an ammunition depot on the base in Bid Ganeh, near the town of Malard on the western outskirts of Tehran.

All the casualties were said to be IRGC members.

At least 16 people were also reported wounded in the blast.

There were no reports linking the blast to any air strike or other attack, and authorities were said to be treating the blast as an accident.

On October 12, 2010, a similar blast at an IRGC munitions store in Khoramabad in western Irankilled and wounded several servicemen.