A vehicle of the volunteer rescue services Edhi foundation lies destroyed next to buildings that collapsed following a car bomb. PHOTO: AFP

QUETTA: Three blasts in Quetta on Thursday left 93 dead and many with serious injuries. The blasts took place in Shahrah-e-Iqbal and Alamdar Road area.



The second and third blasts were suicide blasts at a snooker club on Alamdar Road.



The government has announced three days of mourning over the tripple blasts in the city on Thursday. The government has also announced Rs1 million as compensation for heirs of victims.



Alamdar Road blast



Later in the evening, a suicide bomber exploded himself at a snooker club on Alamdar Road, Bomb Disposal Squad said.



As rescue workers, police and media personnel descended on the scene, a second set of timed explosives planted in a vehicle went off.



CCPO Quetta Mir Zubair said at least 81 people were killed and as many as 121 people were injured in these blasts. The injured have been shifted to Combined Military Hospital. At least 50 of the injured are described to be in critical condition.



“The whole four-storey building of the snooker club collapsed due to the huge impact of the blast. The snooker club was located in the basement of the building,” DIG Investigation Hamid Shakeel told The Express Tribune.



The dead include DSP Quaidabad, SHO Quaidabad Jaffar Khan among nine policemen. A private channel's cameraman Imran Shaikh and reporter Saifur Rehman Baloch also lost their lives along with a news agency's photographer. Four rescue volunteers of the Edhi service were also killed.



Senior Superintendent of Police, Quaidabad, also sustained serious injuries in the blast.



Quetta police and BDS have arrived at the blast site and cordoned off the area. Rescue work is still underway with heavy machinery requested for clearing debris at the site.



Power supply in the city has been disrupted after the incident.



Banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Jhanvi called news offices to claim responsibility for the attack.



Shahrah-e-Iqbal blast



At least 12 people were killed and 27 others were injured when a blast ripped through the Baacha Khan Chowk area of Shahrah-e-Iqbal, a senior police official said.



The Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Quetta Mir Zubair Mehmood confirmed the death toll, adding that details regarding the bomb attack would be divulged after further investigation.



Witnesses said children and Frontier Corps (FC) personnel were among those injured.



This is the third blast in the same area which houses a shopping plaza and a market and is generally a busy area.



The police, FC, bomb disposal squad (BDS) and rescue teams reached the scene, cordoning off the area and shifting the injured to hospitals.



20 to 25kg explosives were reportedly used in the bomb.



Express News correspondent Irfan Rana reported a two to three-foot deep crater where the blast occurred.



Thirteen cars, including FC vehicles, were damaged in the blast.