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Car bombing kills 30, wounds 250 in Pakistan

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-05-27 21:03

LAHORE -- Gunmen detonated a car bomb near police and intelligence agency offices in eastern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing about 30 people and wounding at least 250 in one of the country's deadliest attacks this year.

Pakistani rescue worker struggle to recover an injured victim from the rubble at the site of suicide car bombing in Lahore, Pakistan on Wednesday, May 27, 2009. [Agencies]

Attackers with rifles stepped from the car and opened fire on the intelligence agency building in the city of Lahore, then set off a massive blast when security guards returned fire, officials said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik suggested the attack could be retaliation for the government's military offensive to rout Taliban militants from the northwestern Swat Valley.

Lahore, Pakistan's second-largest city, sits near the Indian border and is considered a liberal, cultural capital. Assaults there have heightened fears that militancy in nuclear-armed Pakistan is spreading well beyond the northwest region bordering Afghanistan. Wednesday's attack was the third major strike in Lahore in recent months.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the latest bombing. Police said two suspects were detained.

Related readings:  Official: Bombing kills about 30 in Pakistan  Blast hits Pakistan's Lahore, casualties feared  Bloody urban battles could lie ahead in Pakistan  Pakistan: 55 Taliban, 3 troops killed in Swat  Suicide car bomber kills 18 in Pakistan

Raja Riaz, a senior minister in the Punjab provincial government, told reporters about 30 people were killed. Sajjad Bhutta, another senior government official, told reporters more than 250 people were injured.

A police building collapsed in the blast, and rescuers rushed to free officers buried in the rubble.

The explosion sheared the walls off neighboring buildings in a main business district. The ceilings of operating rooms in a nearby hospital also collapsed, injuring 20 people.

Agents from the Inter-Services Intelligence agency were among the dead, a senior official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

"The moment the blast happened, everything went dark in front of my eyes," witness Muhammad Ali said. "The way the blast happened, then gunfire, it looked as if there was a battle going on."

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