Peshawar, Islamabad:
At least 91 people were killed and 200 injured on Wednesday, in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Pakistan. A powerful car bomb ripped through a packed market in Peshawar, hours after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived here on her maiden official visit.
Several buildings caught fire and collapsed due to the explosion that occurred in the congested 'Peepal Mandi' area of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), shortly after 1 pm local time.
Shafqat Malik, chief of the city's bomb disposal squad, said the blast was caused by a car bomb packed with 150 kgs of explosives.
Eighty people, many of them women and children, died and over 200 were injured in the attack, NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters at the site of the attack, as rescue workers scoured the debris for survivors.
Doctors at Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar's main healthcare facility, said at least 50 of the injured were in a serious condition.
Other officials said they feared the toll could rise as more people were believed to be buried in the rubble of buildings that collapsed.
The Meena Bazar, a market exclusively for women, bore the brunt of the blast, the 13th attack to rock Peshawar in recent weeks, and many of the injured and dead were women and children.
Many bodies were charred and missing limbs, witnesses said. The injured were rushed to hospital in ambulances and private vehicles.
The blast, heard across Peshawar, sparked a major fire and white smoke billowed over the city.
Footage on television showed two rows of shops on either side of a narrow road going up in flames and collapsing. Dozens of shops and several cars were gutted by the fire while the blast also damaged a mosque.
The fire spread rapidly as most buildings in the area were made of wood. Many of the buildings had shops on the ground floor and private residences on the upper storeys.
Residents of the area used their hands to dig through rubble to pull out the dead and injured.
One building collapsed even as fire fighters battled the blaze, sending up clouds of dust. The fire and the narrow streets in the area hampered rescue efforts.
An emergency was declared in hospitals. Many of the people brought to hospital suffered burn injuries.
(With PTI inputs)
Several buildings caught fire and collapsed due to the explosion that occurred in the congested 'Peepal Mandi' area of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province (NWFP), shortly after 1 pm local time.
Shafqat Malik, chief of the city's bomb disposal squad, said the blast was caused by a car bomb packed with 150 kgs of explosives.
Eighty people, many of them women and children, died and over 200 were injured in the attack, NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters at the site of the attack, as rescue workers scoured the debris for survivors.
Doctors at Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar's main healthcare facility, said at least 50 of the injured were in a serious condition.
Other officials said they feared the toll could rise as more people were believed to be buried in the rubble of buildings that collapsed.
The Meena Bazar, a market exclusively for women, bore the brunt of the blast, the 13th attack to rock Peshawar in recent weeks, and many of the injured and dead were women and children.
Many bodies were charred and missing limbs, witnesses said. The injured were rushed to hospital in ambulances and private vehicles.
The blast, heard across Peshawar, sparked a major fire and white smoke billowed over the city.
Footage on television showed two rows of shops on either side of a narrow road going up in flames and collapsing. Dozens of shops and several cars were gutted by the fire while the blast also damaged a mosque.
The fire spread rapidly as most buildings in the area were made of wood. Many of the buildings had shops on the ground floor and private residences on the upper storeys.
Residents of the area used their hands to dig through rubble to pull out the dead and injured.
One building collapsed even as fire fighters battled the blaze, sending up clouds of dust. The fire and the narrow streets in the area hampered rescue efforts.
An emergency was declared in hospitals. Many of the people brought to hospital suffered burn injuries.
(With PTI inputs)
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