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At least 20 dead reported in Pakistan car bomb incident
At least 20 people died and many injured when a car bomb exploded at a petrol station in Faisalabad, also trapping more as several buildings were destroyed in the blast.
Local officials said the device caused several gas cylinders at the station to explode, destroying cars and buildings in the area. Television footage showed collapsed buildings and burnt-out cars.
Unconfirmed reports also said the explosion took place near the offices of Pakistan's intelligence agency, ISI. Officials have already said that the death toll may rise as people are being from the damaged structures.
"There are some people trapped under the building rubble. We have deployed our cranes and machinery to rescue them very soon," commissioner Tahir Husain was reported as saying by Pakistan's private Geo television.
He said the "probability is very strong" that the blast was caused by a militant attack but added that investigations were still ongoing.
"We heard the explosion from the gas station, the earth moved as in an earthquake, and there was thick smoke all around," a security guard at the nearby office of Pakistan International Airlines said.
Faisalabad, a city some 160 miles (260km) south of Islamabad has rarely been targeted by militants and is a key hub for Pakistan's textile industry.
