47 killed, 150 wounded after bomb blast in Pakistan

A powerful bomb went off Monday near a mosque and police offices in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, killing at least forty-seven people and wounding about hundred and fifty worshippers, police and government officials said.

The blast took place at the mosque where many people had gathered for prayer, police official Sikandar Khan told Reuters news agency on Monday. “A portion of the building had collapsed, and several people are believed to be under it,” Khan added.

Mohammad Asim, a spokesman for the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshawar, said they had received 90 injured people, some of them in critical condition. Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reporting from Islamabad said details were emerging that a suicide bomber carried out the attack.

“We are also getting details … the suicide bomber himself was sitting in the front row of the congregational prayer inside the mosque,” he added.

Al Jazeera/S.O