At least 25 dead in Lahore suicide blast

From TRT World

Police say the explosion which occurred near a high-traffic thoroughfare was caused by a suspected suicide bomber. Local media put the death toll at twenty-five. Officials say that is expected to rise as dozens were injured.

Pakistani rescue workers at the site of the explosion in Lahore, July 24, 2017.

A suicide bomber killed at least 25 people, many of them police, in the Pakistani metropolis of Lahore on Monday, officials and local media reported. The death toll is expected to rise as dozens were injured.

The blast wrought carnage near the Arfa Karim Software Technology Park in the heart of the city, targeting police who were deployed to clear illegal street vendors from the area, an official said. The anti-encroachment operation was ordered by the Lahore Development Authority.

Haider Ashraf, deputy inspector general of Punjab police, said the blast was a suicide attack and "police were the target."

The attack shattered a period of relative calm in Pakistan's second-largest city.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. In the past such blasts have often been carried out by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan militants.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the blast in a statement and called for the injured to be given the best possible treatment.

In early April, a suicide attack on an army census team working in Lahore killed at least six people and wounded 18 others.