AT LEAST 50 KILLED, OVER 70 INJURED IN MOSQUE BLAST IN PAKISTAN

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ISLAMABAD (NNN-Bernama)-- At least 50 people were killed and over 70 others injured when a huge blast ripped through a mosque in northwest Pakistan Friday afternoon, local media reported. 

According to local Urdu TV channel Express, the blast took place at about 2:00 a.m. local time Friday in a mosque at the Ghondi area of Jamrud, a district in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of Khyber Agency which borders Afghanistan. 

Hundreds of people were offering Friday prayers inside the mosque when the explosion occurred, China's Xinhua news agency quoted local media as saying. 

Some reports said over one hundred people were inside the mosque hit by the blast while others put the number at 500 to 700 people. 

The entire building of the mosque collapsed following the blast, according to the reports, adding that many people were buried under the debris of the collapsed mosque. 

An estimated 40 injured people have been rushed to nearby hospital. 

Local TV channel Geo quoted eyewitnesses said that the blast was a planted bomb attack, but the report is not officially confirmed.