Bomb damages police buildings

LAHORE, Pakistan – A bomb exploded in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore today, badly damaging buildings housing police and the country’s main intelligence agency, and causing a large number of casualties, officials said.

The blast was powerful enough to shear walls off buildings in the city’s main business district.

Khoro Pervaiz, the commissioner of Lahore, said there were “a large number of casualties” though a tally was not exactly known.

Television footage taken shortly after the blast showed injured bystanders as well as emergency workers carrying at least one body covered by a blanket to an ambulance.

Police official Mohammed Ashfaq said the bomb went off outside the office of the emergency police service in Lahore.

Ashfaq said the blast was powerful enough to destroy several vehicles on the street, and several people wounded in the explosion were rushed to hospitals. He said gunshots were heard immediately after the blast.