Pakistan: 5 schoolkids among 9 killed in blast

Islamabad/Karachi: At least nine people, including five children, were killed and 27 others were injured as an autorickshaw carrying schoolchildren bore the brunt of a bomb blast targeting a police mobile van in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province on Friday.

The blast occurred at 8.35 am near a girl’s high school at the Civil Hospital Chowk of the Mastung district of the province.

Deputy Commissioner Mastung Baz Muhammad Marri said in the evening that the death toll has risen to nine. “Among the deceased are five girls, one boy, one police officer, and two other civilians,” he said.

Earlier, Mastung DPO Miandad Umrani confirmed that while seven people, including five schoolchildren, had died on the spot after the blast, one of the injured passed away in a hospital.