Blast rocks school in Pakistan' s Peshawar, 1 child killed

A child was killed and 10 people were injured on Monday as an explosion hit a police public school in northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar, police and hospital sources said.

The remote-controlled bomb blast took place outside the main gate of the state-run Police Public School at the Khyber road in Peshawar, where a large number of people were present to pick up their children, police said.

The dead was a student of 7 to 8 years old and the injured including six children have been rushed to the Khyber Teaching Hospital in the city, the hospital told Xinhua.

Eyewitness said two vehicles were destroyed and one nearby shop was damaged partially. "Two vehicles were completely destroyed with its parts splintered around," an eyewitness Iyas Khan Shinwari told reporters.

Some analysts believe that the moderate intensity blast was designed to frighten people but the details of the blast could not be ascertained.

Most of the school's students are children of police personnel. The bathrooms of the school was damaged by a cracker blast in 2009.

The busy Khyber road, where Peshawar University and other educational institutions are situated, has been closed for traffic and the entire area was hit by panic.

The heavy police contingent arrived on the spot along with the Bomb Disposal Squad. No groups claimed responsibility for the attack so far but militants outfits including the Pakistani Taliban launched a string of bomb strikes in recent weeks in the country's restive northwest near the border with Afghanistan.

Source: Xinhua