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Pakistan blast: Taliban bike bomb kills 26 in Lahore | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
At least 26 people have been killed in a car bombing in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, officials say. | At least 26 people have been killed in a car bombing in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, officials say. |
More than 50 others were injured in the explosion on the busy Ferozepur Road close to a vegetable market in the south of the city. | |
The Pakistani Taliban said it was behind the explosion. | |
Reports suggest it was a suicide bomber on a motorbike, and the target may have been police working in the area. Police officers are among the dead. | |
Windows were blown out in nearby buildings by the force of the blast. | |
Eyewitness Sher Dil, who works at an office near the site, said he heard a "deafening blast". | |
The market was full of police at the time because officers had been sent to clear stalls that had illegally spilled into the road. | |
"We suspect that he (the suicide bomber) came on a motorcycle and he rammed it into a police checkpoint," Lahore police operations chief Haider Ashraf told Reuters. | |
Rescue workers have transferred the wounded to hospital, and police and army troops were sent to contain the scene. | |
Pakistan's president, prime minister and army chief have all expressed their sorrow and condolences for the loss of life. | |
It is the latest in a series of explosions in Lahore in recent months. | It is the latest in a series of explosions in Lahore in recent months. |
In April, the Pakistani Taliban said they had carried out an attack on workers conducting a government census. | In April, the Pakistani Taliban said they had carried out an attack on workers conducting a government census. |
A Taliban faction said it was behind a bomb attack in Lahore in February which killed 13 people and wounded more than 80. | |
The Pakistani Taliban is loosely allied with Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents, but targets the Pakistani government. |