40 killed, 50 injured in suspected suicide blast in SW Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - At least 40 people were killed and 50 others injured when a bomb went off inside the emergency ward of a hospital in Pakistan's southwest Quetta city on Monday morning, local Urdu media and officials said.

Sanaullah Zehri, Chief Minister Balochistan with Quetta as capital city, said that the blast happened when a large number of lawyers and journalists were gathering in the Civil Hospital to collect body of a local law association chairman.

He said that most of the injured people included lawyers while the dead also included lawyers and two journalists.

He said that militancy has seeped into the province like cancer and the terrorists are getting foreign funding to deteriorate law and order situation in the province.

Three-day mourning was announced in the province.

Express News said that 40 people were killed and 50 others injured in the blast that was apparently carried out by a suicide bomber.

Bomb disposal squad said that eight to 10 kg of explosives were used in the blast.

The squad said that they have found limbs from the blast site, which might be of the bomber, but more investigations are being made to further confirm the nature of the explosion.