UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday said that he was saddened by the deadly explosion in a metro station in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and conveyed his sincerest condolences to the people of Belarus.

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A statement, issued here late on Monday by Ban's spokesman, said, "The secretary-general was saddened to learn about the deadly explosion today in the Minsk metro system in the Republic of Belarus, which has reportedly killed at least eleven people and injured many others."

Ban "conveys his sincerest condolences to the people of Belarus and, in particular, to the families of the victims," the statement said. "He wishes those injured a speedy recovery."

Eleven people were killed and 126 others were wounded in a blast that struck Minsk's Oktyabrskaya station, a key transit in the capital's subway system, at an after-work rush hour, reports said.

The cause of the blast remained unknown, but President Alexander Lukashenko said he did not rule out the possibility of outside forces plotting behind it, the reports said.