At least 53 people, including children, were today killed as a powerful blast triggered by a suicide bomber ripped through a crowded public park in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore, capital of Punjab province.
The explosion occurred at the Gulshan-e-Iqbal park in a posh locality near the city’s centre. Eyewitnesses said there were pools of blood and scattered body parts in the park, where a large number of families, especially women and children, were present on a Sunday evening.
The crowd was “unusually large” because of Easter, an eyewitness was quoted as saying by the Dawn. Iqbal Town Superintendent of Police Muhammad Iqbal said that the explosion was a suicide attack.
There was no security present in and around the park, the report said.Rescue officials and police rushed to the explosion site in a renowned residential area of Lahore.
An emergency has been declared at all government hospitals in the city, and a heavy contingent of police has cordoned off the area.
