Suicide bomber kills 17

People gather near a vehicle in Kohat, south of Peshawar, Pakistan. -- PHOTO: AP

PESHAWAR - AT LEAST 17 people were killed in a suicide attack on a market in the northwestern Pakistan of Kohat on Wednesday, a senior police official said.

The explosion took place at a busy bus terminal in the garrison town's main Tirah bazaar, Kohat police chief Dilawar Bangash told AFP. 'It was a suicide blast. The death toll has risen to 17,' he said, adding that 25 others were wounded, seven of them seriously.

It is the latest bombing in a long series of attacks in Pakistan blamed on networks linked to the Taleban and Al-Qaeda.

Local police spokesman Fazal Naeem said the bomber approached the door of a bus carrying passengers to the nearby tribal district of Orakzai and detonated his explosives. Television footage showed two damaged passenger vans parked at the terminal. A woman was crying while people tried to console her.

Earlier it appeared the bomb was planted in a vehicle parked at the main bus stand, but Bangash said that 'now we have found the head and legs of the suicide bomber'.

Bangash said it was not immediately clear who was the target. The victims were both Sunni and Shiite Muslims, he said. -- AFP