An elderly Kashmiri man is carried on a stretcher for treatment at a hospital in Srinagar. Photo: AP

An explosion outside a mosque prayer hall early on Thursday wounded nine worshippers in the insurgency-wracked Kashmir, police said.

The blast occurred after the early morning prayer in Trenz, a village 60 kilometers (40 miles) south of Srinagar, said police officer Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani.

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Abdul Gani Dar, a wounded 75-year-old, said a tumbler lying in the mosque complex blew up with a deafening sound as a caretaker picked it up while people were leaving the area.

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Four people with multiple shrapnel wounds were taken to a hospital in Srinagar, police said. Police are investigating, but no one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Police defused a similar device in the area on Thursday in a house belonging to a commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest militant group in Kashmir, said Gillani.

On Wednesday night, one soldier was wounded in an attack by insurgents, police said.