Peshawar (Pakistan): At least 7 students were killed and 70 wounded when a powerful bomb blast ripped through an Islamic seminary on the outskirts of the northwest city of Peshawar in Pakistan on Tuesday morning.
When the blast took place, a cleric was delivering a lecture about the teachings of Islam at the main hall of the Jamia Zubairia madrassa in Peshawar, about 170 kilometres (around 100 miles) west of Islamabad, said Waqar Azim, a senior police official.
“The blast took place in a madrassa where unknown people had planted explosives in a plastic bag,” a police officer told news agency Reuters on condition of anonymity.
The deaths have been confirmed by Mohammad Asim Khan, a spokesman at a local hospital, who told AFP that seven bodies and 70 wounded people had been taken to the facility. “Most of those killed and injured were hit by the ball bearings and some were badly burnt. All of the dead were men aged between 20 and 40,” he said.
No group claimed immediate responsibility for the attack.