3rd LD: Suicide blast kills 8 in Pakistan's Lahore

At least eight persons were killed and 12 others injured on Tuesday afternoon in a suicide blast outside a police center in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore, police said.

City Chief Police Officer (CCPO), Muhammad Amin Wains, said the incident took place at 12:35 p.m. local time when a suicide bomber exploded his jacket outside a police center in the downtown Qilla Gujjar Singh area of the Lahore, provincial capital of the eastern province of Punjab.

The official said the target of the suicide bomber was the police center, but he could not enter into the center due to tight security and he attacked a nearby restaurant.

An eyewitness said he saw a young person aged between 22-25 years old who was running towards the restaurant near the main gate of the police center and then the blast took place.

Earlier reports said the blast took place in a car, but now police confirmed that it was a suicide attack.

Police, security forces and rescue teams rushed to the site and shifted the bodies and injured to the Mayo Hospital and Ganga Ram Hospital of the city.

The death toll may further rise as many of the injured were in critical condition in the hospitals, hospital sources said.

At the time of the blast, a high level meeting was being chaired by the chief of the police operations and around 10,000 police personnel were present in the center.

Police has also arrested a suspect from near the site and shifted him to some undisclosed location for interrogation.

The intensity of the explosion was so high that it was heard miles away from the site. Window panes of the nearby buildings were smashed and many vehicles parked nearby the blast site also caught fire.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.

The country's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the blast and directed the concerned authorities to provide the best available medical treatment to the injured. Endi