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Pakistan city hit by deadly blast | Pakistan city hit by deadly blast |
(about 1 hour later) | |
At least 16 people have been killed and some 70 injured in a suspected car bombing in the north-western Pakistani city of Peshawar, police say. | |
The blast hit a heavily populated area outside a Shia mosque near the central Kissa Khwani bazaar. | |
It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. | |
Recent violence in north-west Pakistan has included sectarian clashes as well as fighting between the army and Islamist militants. | |
The attack in Peshawar ripped through the bazaar, where people were shopping ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid. | |
Women and children are believed to be among those killed, and a number of people were said to be trapped under rubble. | |
"I was busy in Eid shopping when a powerful explosion rocked the entire area, I fell on the ground and saw cars and shops on fire," one witness told AFP news agency. | |
"It was like hell had broken loose." | |
The explosion left the narrow lanes of the bazaar strewn with human limbs and charred bodies, witnesses said. | |
A local hospital where more than a dozen bodies were taken was appealing for blood. | |
Congested lanes around the scene of the blast were making it difficult for rescuers to gain access, local media said. | Congested lanes around the scene of the blast were making it difficult for rescuers to gain access, local media said. |
Sectarian violence | Sectarian violence |
North-west Pakistan has been the scene of a number of sectarian attacks involving Shia and Sunni Muslims. | North-west Pakistan has been the scene of a number of sectarian attacks involving Shia and Sunni Muslims. |
Earlier in the day, six people died in what was believed to be a sectarian attack in the Orakzai tribal region. | |
Late last month a bomb went off just after evening prayers in the minority Shia mosque in Peshawar's Hashtnagri neighbourhood, injuring at least eight people. | |
There were also deadly bombings at a Shia Muslim funeral in the town of Dera Ismail Khan, and at a mosque in the tribal district of Bajaur. | |
Shias make up less than 20% of Pakistan's population. Thousands of militants from both their community and from the majority Sunni community have been killed in tit-for-tat attacks over the past decade. | |
Friday's attacks also come against the backdrop of army operations in north-west Pakistan against al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters, and tribesmen who support their cause. |