Worshippers at a mosque in a Saudi Arabian village near Mecca discovered they were praying for 10 years in the wrong direction, a newspaper in the country reported Thursday.

Muslims are meant to pray in the direction of the most sacred site in Islam, known as the Kaaba, a large granite structure in the holy city of Mecca.

Villagers in Hadda, 20 km north-west of Mecca, should have prayed southeast, but instead bent down five times a day in a northern direction.

After realising the error, the mosque's leaders changed the direction of the prayer carpets so the worshippers now face the Kaaba.