Islamabad - At least 30 people were killed and 50 others injured when a blast hit a hospital in Pakistan's southwest Quetta city on Monday morning, local Urdu media reported.
Dunya News said that the blast happened at about 9.50am local time when people were gathering to collect the body of a local law association chairman in the civil hospital of Quetta, the capital city of the country's southwest Balochistan province.
The slain lawyer Bilal Kasi was on his way to office when unknown gunmen opened fire on his car in Manno Jan Road of Quetta. The gunmen fled the scene after the attack.
Hospital sources said that the dead people in Monday's blast included two journalists, one a a local TV channel's cameraman, while the injured included journalists, lawyers and hospital staff.
Provincial health minister Rahmat Baloch said that the death toll is feared to rise further as 20 among the injured people are said to be in critical condition. He said that the lawyers, who were gathering in the hospital to protest against the killing of their slain president, were the target of the explosion.
Baloch said that some of the injured had been shifted to Bolan Hospital Quetta as the Civil Hospital ran out of beds and other services to accommodate the victims.
He said that a state of emergency had been declared in all hospitals of the city to ensure the best possible medical treatment to the injured people.
The bomb disposal squad said that the blast might have been carried out by a suicide bomber as they limbs at the blast site, but more investigations are being made to confirm the nature of the explosion.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
A heavy contingent of police and paramilitary troops rushed to the site and cordoned it off for investigations.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the blast and vowed to root out militancy in the country.
Following the attack, the lawyers in the province boycotted court procedures.
The Pakistan Bar Association condemned the attack and announced a three-day mourning period.
Xinhua