Around 250 people were injured when metal awnings collapsed on top of spectators at a sports stadium in the Iranian city of Sari yesterday, the official Iranian media reported.
But hospital sources and a senior sports official denied earlier media reports that several people had been killed.
State television said spectators were hurt when the awnings caved in over part of the seating area of the stadium, packed with up to 40,000 people watching a soccer game.
It said many people were treated for minor injuries on the spot and quoted sources at Imam Khomeini Hospital in Sari as saying 100 people were brought in for treatment, including one in critical condition and two with possible brain damage.
The sources said there were no fatalities.
IRNA's English-language service had earlier quoted its correspondent on the scene as saying "several people" had been killed and hundreds injured.
The head of Iran's Physical Education Organisation, Mustafa Hashemi-Taba, later told IRNA: "Fortunately there were no fatalities."
He said most of the injured were hurt in a stampede while thousands of people tried to flee the Motaqi stadium, which he said had a capacity of only 10,000.
He said the collapse was due to pressure from spectators sitting on top of the awnings. "They should not have let so many people into the stadium," he said.
An injured man, interviewed by television from a hospital bed, blamed stadium officials for allowing in such a high number of people. "All they are interested in is money," he said.
"We were sitting down and suddenly some 500 people sitting on the awnings came down on us," one witness said.
The television broadcast footage showing thousands of people running in different directions.