The death toll from the bomb blast that ripped through a Shiite mosque in Sindh province's Shikarpur district in Pakistan on Friday, has risen to 61.
The explosion occurred immediately after the Friday prayers at the Karbala Maula Imambargah in Lakhi Dar area, bringing down the roof of the mosque, and killing scores while wounding 55 others, Dawn reported.
"It was a big explosion inside the Imambargah and was set off with a remote device. The intensity of the blast led to the roof of the make-shift building caving in completely which has led to many deaths," senior police official Abdullah Mehr told AFP.
Many people are feared trapped under the debris. Sindh Information Minister Sharjeel Inam Memon imposed an emergency in all hospitals in the area.
"The area is scattered with blood and flesh and it smells of burnt meat, people are screaming at each other... it is chaos," a witness told AFP.
Reports suggest the blast was a suicide bombing attack; it comes weeks after a blast at a Shiite mosque in Rawalpindi killed scores earlier this month.
Pakistan is in the process of implementing a National Action Plan to fight terrorism in the country, and the blast came on the same day as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to Karachi 500 kilometers away.
