Three children have lost their lives and two others sustained injuries as an unexploded ordnance went off in southern Afghanistan's Helmand province on Saturday, provincial government spokesman Mawlawi Mohammad Qasim Riaz said.

The innocent children were playing in an open area in Garmsir district Saturday morning and found a toy-like device, but the device exploded, killing three children on the spot and injuring two others, the official said, adding that the injured children have been shifted to a nearby hospital.

A similar incident claimed the lives of two children and injured seven others in the northern Baghlan province in mid-January.

Afghanistan reportedly is one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world, as explosive devices and unexploded mines left over from the past more than four decades of wars claim the lives of over a dozen people mostly children every month in the war-torn country.