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Pakistan blast kills female students

15 June 2013 17:02 (UTC +04:00)

A homemade bomb had been planted on the bus, police say.

Later gunmen attacked the hospital where the victims were being treated. A senior city official is reported to have been killed.

Quetta is the capital of Balochistan province, which has seen a surge in militant violence in recent months.

Some attacks are carried out by separatists and others by Islamists who oppose women's education.

In the latest, the students were about to go home when the explosion occurred. Later another explosion rocked the medical centre where the students were being treated,

Militants armed with grenades were positioned there and exchanged fire with members of the security forces who rushed to the scene, police say.

Pakistan TV says a senior Quetta official, Abdul Mansoor Khan, who had gone to the hospital to visit the wounded students, was killed in the stand-off. There are fears of more casualties.

No group has said it carried out either attack.