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- Dubai 04:27 05:45 12:20 15:47 18:49 20:07
Pakistani volunteers carry the lifeless body of a victim of a bomb blast from the wreckage of a bus, in Quetta, Pakistan, Saturday, June 15, 2013. A bomb tore through a bus of female university students in southwestern Pakistan Saturday, killing several, officials said. As family and friends gathered at the hospital another blast went off, followed by a flurry of bullets that sent bystanders running for cover. (AP)
At least 23 people were killed after militants blew up a bus carrying women students in Pakistan's troubled southwest and later targeted the hospital treating survivors, as a gun battle with insurgents continued, officials said.
Twelve female students were killed in the first blast that hit a university bus in Quetta, capital of the restive Baluchistan province, a security official told AFP. Eleven others died when a bomb exploded in the emergency ward of the city's Bolan Medical Complex where the wounded were rushed, he said.
The militants remain holed up in the hospital building which has been cordoned off by security forces, Abdul Wasey, spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps said.
"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," he said.
"We have launched an operation and an exchange of fire is still continuing between security forces and the militants," he said.
He 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.
Wasey said the earlier blast at the university bus killed 12 female students and wounded 21 others. The condition of one woman was critical, he said.
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