Islamabad: A suicide bomber on Friday blew himself up in a hospital in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least four persons, including a TV journalist, and injuring over 10 others.
The bomber struck when a large number of people gathered outside the Civil Hospital in Quetta to protest the killing of a member of the minority Shia community. The Shia man was shot outside a bank and died after
being brought to the hospital.
A large number of protesters, policemen, reporters and TV cameramen were outside the hospital when the suicide attacker detonated his explosives at around 10.15 am.
Malik Arif, a cameraman for Samaa news channel, was among the dead. A reporter for the channel said Arif's body was blown to pieces and his head severed. The reporter said he had also seen another severed head.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
TV channels beamed dramatic footage of people running out of the hospital complex after the blast as a cloud of dust rose into the sky. The explosion was followed by heavy firing though it could not immediately be ascertained who had opened fire.
The blast blackened the walls of the hospital and shattered windows. People carried the injured away from the site of the explosion.
Four policemen, two journalists and a TV cameraman were among the injured, witnesses said. Geo TV reported that its reporter Salaman Asharf was also injured in the attack. Quetta and other parts of Balochistan province have witnessed several attacks on members of the Shia community and non-Baloch people over the past year.
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