Dozens of police officers are thought to have died in a powerful bombing that killed at least 59 people at a crowded mosque in the Pakistani city of Peshawar.
Another 157 people were injured in the blast at the mosque located inside a high-security zone next to a police headquarters, officials told the DPA news agency.
The attack was one of the country’s deadliest in years and struck during Monday afternoon prayers.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack in Peshawar, located near the border with Afghanistan.
The majority of the people confirmed dead are members of the police force, a hospital spokesperson told DPA.
At least 65 people were staying in hospital for treatment; dozens of others with minor injuries had already been discharged, said Asim Khan, a spokesman of the Lady Reading Hospital, the biggest health facility in the city.
The city’s police chief, Muhammad Ijaz Khan, told reporters that the blast was believed to have been a suicide bombing.
Local media showed images of the damaged mosque as rescuers tried to save people trapped under the rubble.
A portion of the building collapsed and the roof caved in.
Police chief Khan said that the capacity of the main hall of the mosque was nearly 300 people and it was almost packed to capacity at the time of the explosion.
Amjad Khan, an officer at the Peshawar Judicial Academy whose office is nearby, said he was shaken the sound and the intensity of the blast.
“It reminds me of those days when there used to be daily bombings in Peshawar. Everybody is frightened now. People fear for their safety, especially in the areas where security forces are present,” he told DPA.
A policeman who survived the attack told Geo News that the “powerful” explosion took place the moment prayers started.
“There was smoke everywhere after the blast,” he said.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited the hospital and said that the attackers behind the incident “have nothing to do with Islam”.
“Terrorists want to create fear by targeting those who perform the duty of defending Pakistan,” he said.
An inquiry would be conducted into how the multi-layered security infrastructure at the site was breached, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said.
Last month, a car bomb killed one police officer in Islamabad.
Violence has surged in Pakistan after months of peace talks between the government in Islamabad and the Taliban militants hiding in Afghanistan collapsed in November.
Negotiations were being brokered by the Haqqani network of the Afghan Taliban.
Both the Pakistani Taliban and Islamic State militants have targeted worshippers at mosques in the past.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Pakistani Taliban, who follow the same hardline interpretation of Sunni Islam as their Afghan counterparts but have a different organisation, have killed about 80,000 people in decades of violence.
