QUETTA, Aug 18: Five men of the Frontier Corps were killed and three others injured in a suicide car bomb blast in Quetta late on Friday night.

Official sources said they had been tipped off that an explosive-laden car was headed towards the city.

The FC and other law-enforcement agencies went on high alert after the tip-off.

After Friday midnight, a car was flagged at a checkpost on Qambrani Road, but its driver tried to speed away. Law-enforcement personnel chased the vehicle and fired at its tyres. “The car was stopped in Killi Sharifabad, but the man at the wheels blew himself up when FC personnel approached it,” an official said.

Bodies of the five Frontier Corps men were shifted to the FC Headquarters Hospital while the three severely injured personnel were admitted to the Combined Military Hospital.

Police collected the head and limbs of the bomber for identification.

An FC spokesman said on Saturday that pickets had been set up on different routes leading to Quetta in the wake of reports that terrorists intended to bring an explosive-laden car into the city for carrying out a massive car blast on Eid day.

Quoting the bomb disposal squad, the spokesman said the car was loaded with a huge cache of explosives and ammunition.

Police took some suspects into custody during a crackdown after the bombing.