At least 26 people have been killed in a car bombing in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, officials say.

More than 50 others were injured in the explosion on the busy Ferozepur Road close to a vegetable market in the south of the city.

The Pakistani Taliban said it was behind the explosion.

Reports suggest it was a suicide bomber on a motorbike, and the target may have been police working in the area. Police officers are among the dead.

Windows were blown out in nearby buildings by the force of the blast.

Eyewitness Sher Dil, who works at an office near the site, said he heard a "deafening blast".

The market was full of police at the time because officers had been sent to clear stalls that had illegally spilled into the road.

"We suspect that he (the suicide bomber) came on a motorcycle and he rammed it into a police checkpoint," Lahore police operations chief Haider Ashraf told Reuters.

Rescue workers have transferred the wounded to hospital, and police and army troops were sent to contain the scene.

Pakistan's president, prime minister and army chief have all expressed their sorrow and condolences for the loss of life.

It is the latest in a series of explosions in Lahore in recent months.

In April, the Pakistani Taliban said they had carried out an attack on workers conducting a government census.

A Taliban faction said it was behind a bomb attack in Lahore in February which killed 13 people and wounded more than 80.

The Pakistani Taliban is loosely allied with Afghanistan's Taliban insurgents, but targets the Pakistani government.

Source:
courtesy of BBC NEWS

by BBC NEWS

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