PESHAWAR: Twin bomb blasts minutes apart ripped through a crowded supermarket complex killing 34 people and injuring more than 80 in Peshawar late Saturday.
The attack hit the Khyber Super Market area, which includes residential flats for students, shops, a fruit juices kiosk and a hotel.
A first explosion lured in onlookers and emergency services before a second more powerful blast, believed to be from a suicide strike, went off.
“At least 34 people were killed and more than 80 injured in the blasts,”senior local police official Ijaz Khan told AFP, saying the blasts were only four minutes apart.
Those killed included two journalists working for local English-language newspapers Pakistan Today and The News.
“The first blast was quite small but as people gathered close to the site of the explosion, the second one, which was real big one, went off,” he said.
Another senior local police official, Kalam Khan, confirmed the death toll. There were no immediate claims of responsibility.
“The first blast was triggered by a timed device planted in the bathroom of the hotel while a suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up near the hotel,” bomb disposal chief Shafqat Malik told AFP.
“We have found head and some other body parts of the bomber from the attack site,” Malik added.
Peshawar borders the tribal region and has been repeatedly hit by bombings over the past few years.
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