80 dead in Peshawar market car bomb blast

More than 80 people, many of them women and children, have been killed in a car bomb attack on a busy market place in the the northwestern city of Peshawar in Pakistan.

Hundreds of people are reported wounded. Hospitals have declared an emergency as they struggle to cope with blast injuries suffered by at least 250 people. The Peshawar bomb went off in the busy Peepal Mandi Market Street in the old city, demolishing several shops and sparking a fire that engulfed several other buildings in the immediate vicinity. At least 12 women are believed to be among the dead, say medical officials. Pakistan is on high alert amid fears of retaliatory strikes by Pakistani Taliban militants as the army attacks their strongholds in South Waziristan on the Afghan border where weapons stores and bomb- making equipment have been confiscated. The offensive was launched came after a series of attacks on the United Nations offices in Pakistan, the army headquarters, police and general public, in which more than 150 people were killed.

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