PESHAWAR: A powerful car bomb ripped through a market in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, killing at least 11 people, police said.

The explosion in Matni bazaar near the city of Peshawar injured another 20 people and damaged 30 shops, senior police official Abdul Sattar said.

Khan said the dead and wounded had been transported to a hospital, and some of the injured were listed in a critical condition.

No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar condemned the attack, saying terrorists had killed innocent people by detonating the bomb in a crowded bazar.

“Such attacks cannot deter our resolve in the fight against terrorism,” he said.

Peshawar has witnessed scores of such attacks, most blamed on Pakistani Taliban against whom the military has launched several offensives in recent years. Local tribal elders have assisted the military in its campaigns.