Islamabad - A car bomb ripped through a crowded market in north-western Pakistan Wednesday, killing 93 people, as US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the country and assured full support in the fight against terrorism. About 200 people were injured in the blast that occurred in the Peepal Mandi area of Peshawar, the capital of the restive North-West Frontier Province, when hundreds of women were shopping in the market.
"We have here 93 death confirmed so far. In addition, there are large numbers of severed limbs that are brought here in plastic bags," Abdul Hameed Afridi, chief of the city's main Lady Reading Hospital, told the German Press Agency dpa.
He said up to 30 the injured victims were in critical condition.
"In this incident the percentage of female and child victims is very high," Afridi added.
More dead and injured were believed to be trapped under the rubble of a two-storey building that collapsed after the blast. The building had shops on the ground floor and residential apartments on the upper storey.
Rescuers were still searching through the rubble for victims as firefighters doused several burning shops.
Huge clouds of white smoke were seen rising from the area immediately after the blast. The head of the bomb disposal squad in Peshawar, Shafqat Malik, said more than 150 kilograms of explosives were used in the car bombing.
The blast shattered windows of buildings 500 metres away.
"We are at quite a distance from Peepal Mandi but the blast damaged my shop," Niaz Mohammad told
