DHAKA: At least 14 people have been killed in a bombing outside a polio vaccination centre in the south-western Pakistani city of Quetta.

Officials say, reports the BBC.

Many of the casualties are thought to have been police guarding the clinic.

Armed guards are routine for polio workers in Pakistan, who have been the target of many deadly attacks by Islamist militants in recent years.

Militants oppose polio vaccination, saying it is a Western conspiracy to sterilize Pakistani children.

It is not yet clear who carried out the bombing and whether the attackers intended to hit polio workers.

Pakistan and Afghanistan are the only two countries where the disease is still endemic.

The explosion took place in the morning around the time workers report for duty before heading out on their vaccination rounds, Sarfaraz Bugti, a minister for Balochistan province where the blast took place, told reporters.

About 20 people were injured.

‘We are living in a war zone and I can’t say anything about the nature of the blast,’ Bugti is quoted by the media as saying.

BDST: 1300 HRS, JAN 13, 2016
RR