(AA) – At least 18 people were killed and dozens of others were injured in a gun-and-bomb attack on a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, police and hospital officials said.
The death toll is expected to rise further as bodies were being rushed to hospitals across the city. Pakistani Taliban have claimed the attack, local media reports.
According to initial reports quoting eyewitnesses, around five to six terrorists in police uniforms barged into a Shia Imambargah in the city’s Hayatabad area during the prayers and opened fire on worshippers indiscriminately.
Eyewitnesses also said terrorists threw hand grenades on the people before one of them blew himself up.
Mushtaq Hussein, an eyewitness told local ARY TV channel, “We were in the middle of our prayers when I heard the firing sounds followed by loud screams and a stampede,” Hussain said.
“I also heard loud blasts but I did not look back as people kept pushing and running to save their lives,” he added.
Deputy Commissioner Riz Mehsud told reporters that the terrorists first fired at the people from outside the prayer hall, and then two of them entered the hall to blow themselves up. However, only one of the two could blow himself up, while the second fled leaving his suicide vest on the spot.
City police chief Mian Saeed said that two of the attackers were killed in an exchange of firing with the police. A search operation is underway to catch the remaining terrorists who were believed to be hiding in the locality, Saeed said.
The blast damaged the prayer hall of the mosque as pieces of human flesh, caps, broken glasses and other belongings were strewn all around.
This is the third attack on Shia mosques in Sunni-majority Pakistan in less than two months. Some 73 people were killed in southeastern Shikarpur district in a bomb attack on a Shia mosque last month.
Doctors at Hayatabad Medical Complex described the condition of several injured as critical fearing rise in death toll.
The attack came as a grim reminder of a recent mass shooting at a Pakistani school in the same city that killed over 140 people, mostly children.
