DHAKA: At least four people have been killed and several other people injured in an explosion in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.

According to initial reports, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a hotel near the police district in Lahore’s Qila Gujjar Singh area, says the BBC.

Several vehicles parked near the site of the blast caught fire and gunshots could be heard from within the police district.

A splinter group of the Pakistan Taliban said it carried out the attack.

Lahore city police chief Captain Mohammad Ameen Wains said the blast appeared to have been caused by a suicide bomber intent on entering Lahore's police headquarters who ‘blasted himself prematurely’.

He said several other people had been injured and five or six vehicles damaged.

BDST: 1610 HRS, FEB 17, 2015