Pakistan: Islamic State claims responsibility for Balochistan suicide attack, death toll rises to 25

Islamic State has claimedresponsibility for the suicide bomb attack in Pakistan's Balochistanprovince whichkilled at least 25 people, Reutersreported.

The group's Amaq news agency said a bomber wearing an explosive vest was responsible for the attack.

A bomb exploded next to a convoy of the deputy chairman of the PakistanSenate in Baluchistan province this evening.The blast occurred in the town of Mastung, 50 km (30 miles) from the provincial capital of Quetta. Television footage showed a vehicle mangled by the blast.

At least 35 people have been wounded in the blast. Ten people arein critical condition in hospital, officials said.

A "huge" explosion in Pakistan's restive south-western Balochistan province that apparently targeted a top official's convoy killed at least ten people and wounded "many" others, police and witnesses told AFP (WION)

Police confirmed senate deputy chairman Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri was injured in the blast in Mastung district, east of the provincial capital Quetta.

Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideritold Reuters minutes after the blast that he believed he was the target and he had sustained minor injuries.

"My convoy was going to Mastung and there was an explosion. There are many casualties as there were many people in the convoy," he told Reuters.

"It is not yet clear whether it was a planted bomb or a suicide attack," police official Safar Khan told AFP as he gave the toll.

Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri isthe deputy chairman of the upper house of parliament. Heis a member of Jamiat e Ulema Islam, a right-wing Sunni Islamist political party that is part of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's coalition government.

Developing

(WION with agency inputs)