Several dead in a blast a religious school in Peshawar, Pakistan

A blast at a spiritual school in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar has killed at least seven people and injured 109 others, police and health authorities stated.

The explosion happened at the Speen Jamaat mosque, which also serves as a spiritual school for the local neighbourhood in the city’s Dir Colony section, at 8:30 am local time (3:30 GMT) on Tuesday, a police official informed journalists after the explosion.

“[Students] were seeing the Quran here, that is when the blast happened,” Peshawar police chief Muhammad Ali Khan informed reporters near the scene.

“The initial examination shows […] that five to six kilogrammes [11-13 pounds] of dangerous material was used [and] that someone came here and left a bag of bombs.”

It was not instantly clear how many children were among those killed or wounded, as the students assembled at the school included many who were adults.

Speaking to local television station Geo News, the provincial police’s bomb disposal unit chief Shafqat Malik told the device was sophisticated in design and involved a timed explosion.

“The forensic evidence that we have picked up, shows that it was about 5kg [11 pounds] of explosives and it was a timed device,” said Malik.

“It seems to be a high-quality device, which appears to use TNT. There has been a lot of destruction, and this [attack] has been planned with great thought.”

Televised videos from the commotion of the blast revealed notable damage to the inside of the mosque’s main devotions hall, with pockmarks dotting the ceiling and debris scattered beyond the floor.

At least 83 of those wounded were being treated at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH), the city’s main government hospital, while 26 others were brought to the Naseerullah Khan Babar hospital.

Tariq Burki, an official at the Lady Reading Hospital, said five of the wounded were in critical condition.

“[We] have committed them to the burns centre [for treatment], and two are in the finishing room,” he told. “Most of the patients have received burn injuries.”

Burki established that there were four children amongst those injured, with all of those executed and most of those wounded in the attack aged between 20 and 40.

Naseerullah Khan Babar hospital executive Shafiq-ur-Rehman told media that the injured taken to them had “almost all been discharged by now”.