At least 24 people were killed and 28 injured in an alleged suicide bomb attack at a police station in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday, media reports have said.
The death toll in the attack could reportedly rise further as efforts to pull out bodies from the building are underway. Three rooms collapsed under the impact of the bombing.
Witnesses claim an explosive-laden vehicle was rammed into the main gate of the police station by the militants which ripped apart the building housing the police station. They then started heavy firing targeting the police station.
Local news has reported that police have also gunned down two of the attackers in retaliatory firing.
The attack took place in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan. Tehreek-e-Jihad Pakistan* (TJP), one of the country's newly-formed groups deemed as being terrorist, has claimed responsibility for the attack, the reports said.
The Pakistani province had earlier witnessed a deadly attack after a suicide bomber targeted a mosque in Peshawar in January in which at least 101 people were killed.
*terror group banned in several countries