RAWALPINDI Thirty-five people were killed and 65 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a branch of the National Bank here on Monday.

Most of those who died in the attack were serving or retired civil and military employees, pensioners and elderly citizens who had queued for drawing salary and paying utility bills.

The powerful explosion took place at 10.45am at the branch's parking zone located outside a four-star hotel off The Mall road and near the State Bank. The place is just a few hundred metres away from the GHQ, where militants had carried out a deadly siege last month.

(AFP adds The suicide bomber came on a motorcycle and blew himself up close to people gathered to get salaries. We found parts of a suicide vest and some body parts of the suicide attacker, senior police official Aslam Tarin told reporters.)

Officials said two women, Fakharunnisa and Samina, a police officer and two employees of the ministry of defence, Tariq Javaid and Bashir Ahmed, were among the dead.

A senior police officer said preliminary investigation suggested that eight kilograms of high explosives had been used in the blast.

A bomb disposal squad official said a hand-grenade was also used in the blast. At least 36 pieces of the grenade found from the scene suggested that the bomber might have first used the grenade and then detonated the explosives.

At least 30 shops of a nearby shopping mall and more than two dozen vehicles were damaged and windowpanes of buildings smashed.

An emergency was declared in all hospitals in the cantonment and city areas. The place was cordoned off and commandoes were deployed. Rescue workers and ambulances from Rescue 1122 rushed to the scene and took the injured to hospitals.

An eyewitness, Ms Nasreen, told Dawn that she was coming out of the bank after paying a gas bill when the huge explosion took place. It was a terrible scene and bodies were lying scattered all over the place.

Rescue workers said six bodies were badly charred, two of them beyond recognition.

The death toll may rise because some of the injured were in a critical condition.

Investigators obtained CCTV footages from nearby buildings. A source close to the investigation told Dawn that the investigators could not get any lead from the footages.

According to sources, police spotted a suspicious man with a motorbike in R.A. Bazaar area before the blast, but he escaped before police could catch him.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the blast.