Ten people were killed in a powerful car bomb attack on the US consulate in the southern port city of Karachi Friday, but no consulate staff were among the casualties, officials said. "It was a car bomb... The blast was so powerful that the vehicle flew from one side of the road to the other side of the road," city police chief Tariq Jamil told. "It appears to be a suicide bomber."
Home Secretary of Sindh Province, Mukhtar Sheikh, said it was believed that the bomber was among the dead, but that no consulate staff were hurt in the blast.
"No one among the consulate officials or staffers has been killed or injured in the blast," he said. "However, we are still assessing the identity of those killed. According to witnesses, among the dead is a private security guard posted outside the US consulate," he said. A woman was also killed.
A police source at the scene told that eight bodies had been found and "numerous" people injured. "Five bodies are intact and have been sent to hospital, and there are three more and the body parts are lying in different places," the source told.
"They are at three different places, virtually ripped apart." Jamil also said that an unknown number of police officers on duty outside the building were injured.
Police at the scene said the vehicle used in the attack was a small high-roofed Suzuki van which had been travelling along the road which the consulate is situated on.
The blast was detonated when it reached the corner of the compound, and the huge explosion that followed destroyed part of the perimeter wall of the consulate, but left the main gate intact.
A deep crater was blasted into the road immediately next to the perimeter wall and the vehicle exploded into pieces, some of which were thrown onto the other side of the road and into a park facing the consulate.
Shock waves from the car bomb damaged property in a one kilometre (half-mile) radius of the area, blowing out shop windows and car windscreens and leaving shards of glass carpeted on the ground.
More than a dozen cars in the immediate vicinity were badly damaged. A spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad said they were still gathering facts on the incident before making any statement.
The US embassy ordered non-essential staff and families to leave Pakistan shortly after a March 17 grenade attack on a church in the diplomatic enclave of Islamabad which left five died, including two Americans.
Westerners were targeted again when a car loaded with explosives ploughed into a minibus at the Sheraton Hotel in Karachi, killing 11 French nationals and three Pakistanis.
No group has claimed responsibility, but Islamic extremists linked to suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network have been named as suspects.
Bodies of two women were identified by the police as Farkhanda Jabeen w/o Hasan Ashraf and Nida Nazir d/o Mohammed Nazir.
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