Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Deadly bomb attack on Pakistan religious march

Updated at 8:34 am on 29 December 2009

At least 30 people have been killed and dozens more wounded in a suicide bomb attack on a religious march in Pakistan.

The bomb exploded in the midst of a procession of thousands of people marking the Shi'ite Muslim festival of Ashura in the city of Karachi.

The blast sparked riots in Karachi, the financial capital, where angry mourners went on the rampage, throwing stones at ambulances, torching cars and shops and firing bullets into the air.

Pakistan had deployed tens of thousands of police and paramilitary forces, fearing sectarian clashes or militant attacks on Ashura processions, in which Shi'ites commemorate the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson.

Militant attacks have killed more than 2,760 people in Pakistan since July 2007.

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