Two suicide bombers blew themselves up outside a church in the provincial capital after Sunday Mass, killing at least 80 people and injuring more than 100 others, police say.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Shaukat Yousufzai confimred the death toll.
The attackers hit the 130-year-old All Saints Church in Peshawar right after hundreds of parishioners walked out the building after Sunday mass.
Police said the victims included many children and women.
More than 100 people are being treated at LadyReadyHospital, doctors and hospital sources said.
Sources feared that the death toll from the tragic incident might rise further as condition of several of the injured was serious. Many bodies remained unidentified and many others were missing after the incident.
Human organs and blood was scattered all over the place while reportedly due to the powerful blasts human organs also landed at the nearby houses which created a very tense atmosphere and panic in the whole area.
The hospital was short of beds to accommodate all the injured so many of them were provided treatment on the floor.
CCPO Peshawar Ali Babakhel said that a policeman, who tried to stop the bomber, was also killed in the explosion. Another policeman was also injured in the attack whose condition was stated to be critical.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the densely populated Christian residential area.
Emergency was declared in all hospitals of the city.
The police also recovered the body parts of would be suicide bombers from the scene of the blast.
Deputy Commissioner Peshawar Zaheerul Islam also confirmed the causalities and injuries in the suicide blast.
Eyewitnesses said that two consecutive blasts were heard after which there was pool of blood at the scene.
SSP Peshawar city said that the blast also damaged a portion of the church.
AIG bomb disposal squad (BDS) Shafqat Malik said that both blasts were suicide bombings.
Some residents, enraged at the lack of adequate security at the church, took to the streets immediately after the attack, burning tyres and shouting slogans. Shops were closed in the Kohati Gate area where several other churches are located. Protests have been held in Karachi, Lahore, Multan, Faisalabad and other parts of the country after the attack.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has strongly condemned the blast.
“The Prime Minister said that terrorists have no religion and targeting innocent people is against the teachings of Islam and all religions,” his office said in a statement. “He added that such cruel acts of terrorism reflect the brutality and inhumane mind set of the terrorists.”
The prime minister also directed Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali to immediately reach Peshawar.
He also directed Cabinet Division to send choppers to Peshawar to airlift injured to hospitals in Islamabad.
President Mamoon Hussain, MQM chief Altaf Hussain, ANP chief Asfandyar Wali, Chairman PTI Imran Khan, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazal ur Rehman, leaders of PPP and other political parties also strongly condemned the suicide attack at Christian community.
They said that through such cowardly acts government’s resolve to root out menaces of terrorism and extremism can’t be weakened.
Meanwhile, ANP, PPP, MQM, Majlis-e-Wahdatul Muslimeen and minority groups announced three days of mourning against the attack.