At least nine children died after an unexploded ordnance left over from past wars went off in east Afghanistan's Ghazni province, the state-run Bakhtar News Agency reported on Monday.

The incident occurred in the Zadran area, Geero district of the province, after the children aged between four and 10 found the device on Sunday afternoon and began playing with it, but the device exploded suddenly, killing the nine kids on the spot.

Bakhtar quoted Mullah Hamidullah Nisar, director of the information and culture department of Ghazni, as saying. Similarly, following the blast of an unexploded device, three children were killed and two others sustained injuries in the southern Helmand province on March 22.

The war-torn Afghanistan is reportedly one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world, as unexploded devices and mines have been left over from the past more than four decades of wars and civil strife.

(With UNI inputs)