A powerful explosion has killed at least 37 people in Peshawar, Pakistan, where authorities say they suspect a car bomb was detonated in a market district near a police station. The explosion left a scene of devastation, with casualties and severe damage to nearby buildings in the city's historic Qissa Khawani market.
It followed a smaller explosion, according to Pakistan's Dawn.com. Citing a local bomb disposal expert, the news site reports that after a bomb that resembled a grenade exploded, a car that was laden with about 440 pounds of explosives was detonated remotely.
The blast killed at least 37 people, a local government official tells the Agence France-Presse. The news agency says a doctor at a nearby hospital confirmed the tally, saying that more than 90 were hurt. "He said the dead included two women and six children aged five to nine," the AFP reports.
The attack comes one week after churchgoers were killed in a double bombing at a historic church in Peshawar, and just two days after an explosion on a bus killed at least 17 government workers near the city.
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