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| People move a body from the blast site in Quetta, southwest Pakistan, Jan. 10, 2013. At least ten people were killed and over 35 others injured when a bomb hit Quetta Thursday afternoon, reported local media Dunya. (Xinhua/Mohammad) |
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- At least 11 people were killed and 50 others injured when a car bomb targeting a paramilitary checkpost rocked Pakistan's southwest city of Quetta on Thursday afternoon, according to police and hospital sources.
Zobair Mahmood, city central police officer in Quetta, confirmed that 11 people including a member of Frontier Corps (FC), a paramilitary troop in the country, were killed and 27 others inclduing seven FC personnel got injured in the blast.
But hospital sources in the city put the number of the injured at 50 and said that eight out of the injured were in critical condition.
At least five kids were received by the hospital, said the sources, adding that two of them were critically injured.
At least 13 vehicles including two FC pickups were destroyed in the blast and a number of shops, homes and offices near the blast site were reportedly damaged.
Emergency was declared at two local hospitals and blood donation was sought from the public to help the victims, said local media.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari condemned the attack and expressed grief over the loss of lives.
According to local police and media reports, the blast took place at about 3:50 p.m. local time when a bomb fixed under the chassis of a car parked near a FC checkpost in the Bacha Khan area of downtown Quetta went off, leaving several dead on the spot and dozens of others injured.
All the injured and killed have been shifted to the Civil Hospital and Combined Military Hospital in the city.
Bomb squad disposal officers said that an estimated 25 kg of explosives were used in the bomb.
Eyewitness told local media that the blast was so huge that left a two-feet-deep and eight-feet-wide crater on the site.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack so far.
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