15 killed in suicide car bomb blast in NW Pakistan

Source : Xinhua  English.news.cn

ISLAMABAD, Oct. 13 (Xinhua) -- At least 15 people were killed and 17 others injured when a suicide car bomb blast ripped through a market in Pakistan's northwest town of Dera Adamkhel on Saturday morning, reported local media Express.

While some local media said that it was a car bomb blast, local Urdu TV channel Express and two other channels quoted unidentified sources as saying that it was a suicide car bomb blast.

There is no official confirmation about the nature of the blast yet.

According to local media reports, the blast took place at about 10:40 a.m. local time near a local pro-government militiamen's office at a market in Dera Adamkhel, a small town lying some 30 kilometers south of Peshawar, the largest city in northwest Pakistan.

At least 20 shops and eight vehicles were reportedly destroyed in the huge blast.

Police and rescue team rushed to the site shortly after the blast was reported.

All the injured have been shifted to hospitals in the neighbouring cities of Peshawar and Kohat.

At least ten injured people have been shifted to Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, according to local media reports. Hospital sources in Peshawar said that some of the wounded were in critical condition and the death toll may further rise.

Political administrator of Dera Adamkhel told local media that the target was a local pro- government peace militiamen.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari issued a statement and strongly condemned the bomb attack.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.