93 Dead in Pakistan's Quetta Carnage

Pakistani security officials examine the site of a deadly bomb attack in Quetta on Thursday. Photo by Getty Images

A series of blasts in the city of Quetta in southwest Pakistan killed 93 people and wounded 169 Thursday, police said.

Three days of mourning have been announced in the Pakistani province of Balochistan after a series of blasts in the provincial capital Quetta.

Most of the casualties were from twin blasts at a snooker hall which killed 81 people and injured more than 120 in a predominantly Shia Muslim area.

Among the dead was Quetta-based rights activist, Irfan Ali, reportedly helping those wounded in the first blast.

Earlier, a bomb in a market area killed 11 people and injured 27 more.

A spokesman for militant group, the United Baloch Army, said it had carried out that bombing.

A senior police officer, Hamid Shakil, told AFP news agency that a bomb exploded outside the snooker hall building on Alamdar Road and that the second blast occurred 10 minutes later as rescue workers, police and media arrived.

The first blast appeared to have been carried out by a suicide bomber on foot, police said, while the second was a car bombing.

The dead also included at least two members of a media team and four workers from a private rescue organisation, the Edhi Foundation. At least five policemen also died.

Home Secretary Akbar Durrani told AFP that many of the dead and wounded were Shia, adding that the death toll could rise.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which is a banned organisation, said it had carried out the attack.

TV footage of the earlier market attack showed survivors picking through debris, and emergency crews taking away the wounded.

BBC News correspondent commented that even by the blood-soaked standards of Pakistan, the attack on the snooker hall was devastating.

The Pakistani media has called it a bloodbath.

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