Lahore, March 08: An apparent suicide car bomb killed at least four people and heavily damaged a building housing a government investigative agency on Monday in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, police said.
Many more people were believed to have been wounded in what appeared to be the biggest explosion to strike the nuclear-armed, US-allied country in several weeks.
Television footage showed scenes of major destruction with fallen masonry, a large crater in the ground and volunteers trying to shift debris by hand as ambulances raced to the scene.
“The blast has taken place in Model Town area near the FIA (Federal Investigation Agency) building and we are trying to ascertain the nature of the blast and number of casualties,” police official Mohammad Riaz said.
“There was a big blast,” police official Mohammad Irfan confirmed. It was close to the police investigation building and a seminary, he added.
It appeared a suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into the perimeter wall, said police official Chaudhry Shafiq.
Parts of the brick building appeared to have collapsed, and there were piles of bricks and metal everywhere at the site, the footage showed. Other buildings nearby also were damaged. Ambulances rushed to the area.
The FIA is a civilian law enforcement agency that has been targeted by militant attacks before, though it appeared to be the first time this particular building had been hit.
The agency has been attacked at least twice before in Lahore.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but suspicion immediately fell on the Pakistani Taliban and allied militant groups responsible for a wave of attacks that killed more than 600 people late last year.
-Agencies