Three children among seven injured in Peshawar blast
Pakistan
The explosive was planted alongside the road near a private bank and a school
PESHAWAR (Dunya News/Reuters) – Seven people, including three school children, sustained injuries, two of them serious, in an explosion on Warsak Road here on Tuesday morning.
According to police, the explosive was planted alongside the road near a private bank and a school. Glasses of nearby buildings shattered by the explosion.
Rescue teams and security personnel reached the spot within minutes and removed the injured to Lady Reading Hospital.
The hospital sources said the condition of a nine-year-old child is serious. The injured children are between seven and 10 years of age, they added.
The injured have been identified as Ahmed Zia, Ehsanullah, Javed Khan, Zahirullah, Saad Ahmed, Shakirullah and Yusuf Khan.
The bank staff remained safe in the blast.
Wardak SP Arshad Khan told media that the blast took place at 9:10 am. Four kilogram explosives were used, he continued.
An investigation into the incident has been launched and it is being ascertained when the explosive material was planted, he said.
Reuters adds: Bilal Ahmad Faizi, the spokesman for emergency rescue services, said an improvised explosive device (IED) went off on a busy road.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Peshawar's police chief, Mohammad Ashfaq Anwar, told Reuters that there was no indication school children were the target of the attack.
Peshawar, which straddles the edge of Pakistan's tribal districts bordering Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, is frequently targeted by Islamist militant groups including Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban.
In 2014, six Taliban militants attacked an army-run academy and killed 153 people, most of whom were students.
