Blast outside ISI headquarters kills 13

A car bomb exploded Friday outside the office of a Pakistani intelligence agency in the north-western city of Peshawar, killing at least eight people and injuring more than 30, officials said.

A car bomb exploded Friday outside the office of a Pakistani intelligence agency in the north-western city of Peshawar, killing at leastu00a013people and injuring more than 50, officials said.

The blast that took place in the city's Khyber Road area at around 6:45 am, said Abdullah Khan, a duty officer at the emergency department of the state-run Lady Reading Hospital.

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u00a0Blast near ISI building in Peshawar on Nov 13. u00a0PIC/AFP

Witnesses also said the blast was preceded by firing. The powerful blast, which was heard from over 20 km away, destroyed part of the intelligence agency office and officials fear that people might be trapped under the rubble. .

Police immediately sealed off Khyber Road, one of Peshawar's main thoroughfares, as investigators scoured the site of the explosion for clues.

Friday's bombing was the latest in the string of attacks that hit Pakistani towns and cities after troops launched an offensive against the Taliban in the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border in mid-October.

Meanwhile Peshawar has witnessed some of the worst of the recent wave of suicide attacks and bombings across Pakistan. Last month, nearly 120 people were killed when a commercial hub in the city was targeted with a car bomb.

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