09 August 2016

News Story: 70 killed, 112 injured as suicide blast hits hospital in S.W. Pakistan - hospital sources

ISLAMABAD, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- At least 70 people were killed and 112 others injured in a suicide blast inside the emergency ward of Civil Hospital in Pakistan's southwestern Quetta city on Monday, hospital sources said.

Abdul Rehman, Medical Superintendent (M.S.) Civil Hospital, said the injured people are being treated in three hospitals of Quetta including Civil Hospital, Combined Military Hospital and Bolan medical complex, however, he did not mention the condition of the wounded people.

Previously at least three local TV channels quoted Rehmat Baloch, the health minister of Balochistan province with Quetta as capital city, as saying that the death toll of the blast has risen to 93, as the situation was not clear at that time.

Local media reported that the dead include 25 lawyers and two journalists while there was a large number of lawyers and some journalists in the wounded victims.

Lt. Gen. Asim Bajwa, the Director General (DG) of Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the Pakistani army's media wing, said in a tweet that army will help shifting of seriously injured patients to the hospitals in Karachi, the capital city of neighboring Sindh province.

The M.S. Civil Hospital said 26 of the injured people will be airlifted to hospitals in Karachi.

Local media reported that the army has provided a C-130 to the provincial government to be used as an air ambulance.

Bomb disposal squad said the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber who was hiding an estimated eight to 10 kg of explosive materials in his vest.

Read the full story at Xinhua