Pakistan Car Bomb Blast Kills At Least 45

A car bomb has exploded outside a mosque in southern Pakistan killing at least 45 people - including children - and wounding up to 150 others.

The blast went off in a Shiite area of the city Karachi as people were leaving evening prayers.

Initial reports suggested the bomb was attached to a motorcycle, but officials said later that the damage indicated that explosives had been planted in a car.

The explosion blew the front off two five-storey blocks of flats in the Abbas area of the city.

Several nearby buildings caught fire. Some collapsed because of the intensity of the blast and extensive damage caused to them, trapping people beneath piles of rubble.

Rescuers gather at the scene of the blast

Ijaz Ali was on the third floor of one of the apartment buildings with his wife and two sons when the bomb went off.

"All of a sudden I heard a huge blast and we thought the building was going to collapse - it was like an earthquake," he said.

"The windows of my flat exploded towards me, something hit my head and knocked me unconscious. I opened my eyes in hospital and I am just relieved that my family survived."

Mariam Bibi, also caught up in the blast, added: "It's like doomsday to me. I was watching television when I heard an explosion and my flat was badly shaken.

"I saw people burning to death and crying with pain. I saw children lying in pools of their own blood and women running around shouting for their children and loved ones."

Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, who was in Karachi, condemned the attack and cancelled engagements to oversee the rescue effort.

No-one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

Shiite Muslims have been increasingly targeted by Sunni militant groups in Karachi.

On Monday a bomb at a Sufi shrine regularly visited by Shiites in southern Shikarpur district, some 250 miles northeast of Karachi, killed two people and wounded 10 others.

Two major bombings in the space of five weeks targeting Shiite Hazaras in Quetta, in Baluchistan province, killed nearly 200 people.

The banned extremist Sunni group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi claimed responsibility for both attacks, the most recent on February 16.

The Pakistani Taliban have also increased their campaign of violence in recent months, leading to fears that it could mar the general election which is scheduled to take place in May.

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