PESHAWAR – A blast at a mosque inside a police headquarters in Pakistan on Monday killed and wounded worshippers, hospital officials said. 

The incident happened during afternoon prayers in the northwestern city of Peshawar near the border with Afghanistan.

An AFP reporter at the scene saw rescue workers carry two dead bodies away in an ambulance. Part of the mosque roof and wall structure had collapsed, and bloodied survivors were limping away from the wreckage.

“We have received dead bodies. It’s an emergency situation,” said Muhammad Asim Khan, a spokesman for the main hospital in Peshawar, adding that at least 39 wounded had so far arrived at the facility.

Last March, an Islamic State suicide bomber attacked a minority Shiite mosque in Peshawar killing 64 in Pakistan’s deadliest terror attack since 2018. –AFP