Bomb found in toilet on Iran plane

By Jon Leyne
BBC News, Tehran

A homemade bomb discovered on board an Iranian plane has been defused, semi-official news agencies report.

According to several Iranian news agencies, the bomb was discovered on a plane shortly after it took off from the oil-rich city of Ahvaz.

Plain-clothes security guards, who are believed to travel on every Iranian flight, found it in a toilet.

The incident comes at a time of rising tension in the run up to Iran's presidential elections on 12 June.

The plane turned back to Ahvaz for an emergency landing when the bomb was discovered.

The flight resumed after the bomb was defused.

The incident follows a bomb attack on a mosque in the south-east of the country on Thursday.

In the latest incident, the plane was also flying from a border province - this time, an area that borders Iraq, and has also had problems with restive minorities.

Tension seems to be rising in the run up to the presidential election in two weeks time, particularly as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is by no means guaranteed re-election.