Lahore, March 12: A Twin suicide attack targeting Pakistani army vehicles in the eastern city of Lahore killed 20 people and injured at least 35, a senior police official said.
"We have the heads of both the bombers," Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq said.
"There was an interval of 15 seconds between the two attacks. They were on foot. Their target was army vehicles."
He said at least 20 people were killed, and a number of army personnel are in a serious condition.
The bombers walked up to Pakistani army vehicles in the densely populated R A Bazaar area, blowing themselves up as people sat down to eat before the main Muslim weekly prayers were to begin, a senior official said.
The army cordoned off the tree-lined street where there were shops and a mosque, preventing access to journalists as ambulances raced through the city of eight million to ferry the dead and wounded to hospitals.
The attacks underscored rising volatility in Lahore, where security forces have been a common target.
"The first blast was very small, followed by sounds of gunfire. Immediately after there was a big blast hitting an army vehicle," said Mohammad Bilal who had just sat down for lunch at a nearby restaurant.
Dawn, one of Pakistan's largest English-language newspapers, reports that shooting was heard before the RA Bazaar blast.
A wave of suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan has killed more than 3000 people since 2007. Blame has fallen on Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants bitterly opposed to Pakistan's alliance with the United States.
On Monday, a suicide car bomber destroyed security offices used to interrogate suspected militants in an upmarket Lahore neighbourhood, killing 15 people in an attack claimed by Pakistan's mainstream Taliban faction.
Lahore, Pakistan's historic cultural capital and home to many military and intelligence top brass, has been repeatedly in the militants' sights, with eight attacks killing 155 people in the city over the past year.
---Agencies
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