Gunmen in Pakistan bomb female students' bus then attack hospital
Militants in Pakistan have bombed a bus carrying female students before attacking the hospital where survivors and relatives of the victims had gathered.
Pakistani fire fighters extinguish a burning university bus after the bomb blast in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan province Photo: AFP/GETTY
4:02PM BST 15 Jun 2013
At least 23 people were killed in the twin attacks – including 12 women on the bus, travelling to a university in Quetta, capital of the troubled Baluchistan province. Eleven others died when a bomb exploded in the emergency ward of the city's Bolan Medical Complex where the wounded were taken.
The attack in resource-rich Baluchistan was Pakistan's most lethal since the government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took office last week and followed earlier explosions in a nearby town that killed a policeman and destroyed a historic building.
The gunmen remain holed up in the hospital building, with some attackers on the roof and others in the corridors. Some reports suggested that patients had been taken hostage. The hospital has been cordoned off by security forces, said Abdul Wasey, spokesman for Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps.
"A bomb exploded in the emergency ward killing 11 people and wounding 17 others," he said.
"Militants are also hiding in different wards and firing is continuing. We are trying to clear the premises. We have launched an operation and an exchange of fire is still continuing between security forces and the militants."
Mr Wasey was unable to give the number of attackers.
"They are firing on our security forces and there are reports that may be they have taken some patients hostages," he said.
Police earlier said a senior government official was killed and another was wounded in the gunfire after the blast.
No one had claimed responsibility for the attacks, but suspicion immediately fell on the Pakistani Taliban.
