Suicide strike at Pakistan hospital kills 70, injures 100

Explosives packed with ball-bearings carried by a suicide bomber tore through a Pakistani hospital on Monday, killing at least 70 people.

Witnesses described tearful staff rushing towards the site to help the wounded.

The bomber struck a crowd of 200 people who had gathered at the Civil Hospital in the Balochistan provincial capital Quetta after the fatal shooting of a senior local lawyer earlier in the day. More than a 100 were wounded in the attack, officials said.

Video footage showed bodies strewn on the ground, among pools of blood and shattered glass as shocked survivors cried and comforted one another.

Many of the victims were clad in the black suits and ties traditionally worn by Pakistani lawyers.

An AFP journalist was about 20 metres away when the bomb went off. “There were huge black clouds and dirt,” he said.

“I ran back to the place and saw dead bodies scattered everywhere and many injured people crying. There were pools and pools of blood around and pieces of human bodies and flesh.”

Police confirmed that the attack was a suicide blast. “The bomber had strapped some eight kg of explosives packed with ball-bearings and shrapnel on his body,” bomb disposal unit chief Abdul Razzaq said.