PESHAWAR, Feb 2: A car bomb exploded in a market on Tela Band Road on Wednesday, killing 10 people and injuring 26 others. Four children and a woman were among the dead.

The blast destroyed 10 shops and a restaurant and damaged seven shops. The area was littered with human flesh. It was the third terrorist attack in the city or suburbs in recent days and the second near the Badbher Police Station.

On Monday a suicide bomber struck a police van, killing a DSP and three other people.

Those killed on Wednesday included four members of a family, a man, a woman and two children, who were going to Tela Band village in a taxi. The taxi driver also was killed and his charred body was pulled out breaking vehicle's doors.

The area people took the injured to Lady Reading Hospital in private vehicles where five of them were said to be in critical condition.

A hospital source said that eight people had been brought dead.

Habib-ur-Rehman, a student of class 8 who was at the place, said that he had seen a man parking a car near a pick-up. Soon there was the blast and thick smoke enveloped the entire area. He said he heard screams of people seeking help.

Capital City Police Officer Liaquat Ali Khan told journalists that a time bomb weighing over 40 kilograms had been packed into a CNG cylinder and other material found at the place confirmed that it was a timed device.

He said the apparent target of terrorists was the Badbher police station, but they could not reach there and the bomb exploded in the middle of the market.

The CCPO said artillery shells were added to the explosives to maximise destruction. He said police had taken adequate measures to curb subversive activities, but terrorists were entering Peshawar from all tribal regions using different routes and it was difficult to check all of them. He said that several terrorists had been arrested and they would soon be produced before media.