Car bomb strikes crowds in city of Peshawar killing 20, scores wounded

Peshawar: A car bomb killed at least 20 people and wounded scores in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar on Friday, officials said.

The blast occurred near an assembly hall of minority Shi'ite Muslims in a crowded part of the city. One building collapsed in flames and several others were badly damaged and on fire.

"It shook the entire area like an earthquake," said resident Rahim Gul as he tried to remove rubble with his bare hands. "It was a huge and terrible explosion. As we reached here it was all burning. There was rubble all around."

Khizar Hayat, the chief doctor at the city's main government hospital, said at least 20 people had been killed and 50 wounded, 20 of them seriously.

He appealed to townspeople to donate blood for the wounded.

The blast was caused by an explosives-laden car parked near the assembly hall. Police said it was not clear whether the explosives were detonated by a suicide bomber or by remote control.

Earier on Friday a suicide car bomb killed at least six people in an attack apparently aimed at Shi'ites in the Orakzai ethnic Pashtun tribal region, also in northwest Pakistan.