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At least seven bodies have been retrieved under the rubble of a Shia shrine that partially collapsed in Iraq's southern Karbala province, with six others wounded, the ministry of health said on Monday.

A landslide on Saturday afternoon hit the roof of the Qattarat al-Imam Ali Shrine, located in a natural depression about 25 kilometres from the holy city of Karbala, which then collapsed on top of Shia pilgrims inside. 

The rocks and sand started sliding because of the "saturation of the earthen embankment adjacent to the shrine" due to humidity, the civil defence told Iraq's News Agency (INA).

— مقتدى السيد محمد الصدر (@Mu_AlSadr)

"This led to the collapse of about 30 per cent of the area of the building, which measures about 100 square metres (1,000 square feet)."

Influential Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, head of the Sadrist Movement, in a tweet, offered his condolences and claimed "suspicions of corruption" behind the tragedy.

"We ask the government to order an immediate and serious investigtoder to reveal the truth so that corruption does not reach mosques and places of worship, as it has affected state institutions and ministries," reads part of the tweet.  

The shrine locates in the middle of a valley and contains a spring. Shia Muslims believe that Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, son-in-law and cousin of Prophet Muhammad, and his army stopped for a drink from the spring on their way to battle.