ARIF ALI via Getty Images Pakistani security officials inspect the site after a powerful explosion in Lahore on February 13, 2017.

An explosion near the provincial assembly in the Pakistani city of Lahore killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens on Monday, local media reported.

The explosion rocked a protest organized by Pakistan’s chemist and pharmaceuticals manufacturers.

The English-language Dawn newspaper and Urdu-language Dunya TV both said 10 people had died. Dawn reported 30 people were wounded during the attack.

“Apparently it was a suicide blast but police are still investigating to know the exact nature of blast,” Punjab police spokesman Nayab Haider said.

A spokesman for Jamaat-ur-Ahrar, a faction of the Pakistani Taliban, called Reuters and claimed responsibility for the attack.

The group had also claimed responsibility for an Easter Day bombing in Lahore last year that killed more than 70 people in a public park.

Security in Pakistan has vastly improved in recent years but Islamist groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic State still pose a threat and have carried out mass attacks.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said the attacks will not weaken Pakistan’s resolve in fight against militancy.

“We have fought this fight against the terrorists among us, and will continue to fight it until we liberate our people of this cancer, and avenge those who have laid down their lives for us,” Sharif said in a statement.