It occurred hours after heavily armed suicide attackers stormed a Christian colony in Peshawar.

Twelve people were killed and 52 wounded in two bomb blasts outside a district court in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, a rescue official said.

“So far we have recovered 12 bodies of lawyers, police personnel and civilians. Besides this, we rescued 52 injured, including lawyers, police personnel and civilians from the spot,” Haris Habib, chief rescue officer in the city of Mardan in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told Reuters.

The injured have been shifted to a nearby hospital.

An emergency has been declared at hospitals in the area.

Christian neighbourhood attacked, all four attackers killed

The blasts occurred hours after heavily armed suicide attackers stormed a Christian colony in Peshawar before the terrorists were gunned down by security forces. One security guard was also killed. Two solders, a policeman and two civilian security guards were wounded.

The area is near Warsak Dam, in the Khyber tribal region 20 km northwest of Peshawar, an official at the scene told Reuters.

The official said the attackers might have been attempting to enter an adjacent security installation, by exploiting weaker security arrangements in the residential area.