7 Sep 2010

School children among bomb casualties

5:56 am on 7 September 2010

Four school children are among 19 people killed by a suicide car bomber in north-west Pakistan.

A pickup truck was driven into the rear wall of a police station in the town of Lakki Marwat on Tuesday. The BBC reports the vehicle struck a school van before hitting the police station.

A neighbourhood shop and mosque were also damaged.

The dead include 11 police officers. More than 40 people were wounded.

The Pakistani Taliban announced it had carried out the attacks.

More than 100 people have been killed over the last six days by the Taliban, which has pledged to carry out more attacks unless the militias disbanded.

On Friday, an attack in Quetta killed 73 people, two days after blasts killed 35 people in Lahore.

Lakki Marwat has previously been the scene of huge bomb attacks. The district police chief was killed in a suicide bombing several months ago.