Suicide bomber kills 15 outside Pakistani Polio vaccination centre

TERRORISM: A deadly explosion ripped through a polio vaccination centre in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta earlier today, killing at least 15 people, after a suicide bomber blew himself up at the facility.

The violence-wracked country is also one of only two countries where polio, a crippling childhood disease, remains endemic. Attempts to eradicate it have been badly hit by militant attacks on immunisation teams that have claimed nearly 80 lives since December 2012.

Today's attack came just policemen gathered outside the centre to accompany polio workers for the third day of a vaccination campaign, which are frequently targeted by militant attacks in Pakistan, in the violence-wracked province of Balochistan, of which Quetta is the capital.

"There are 15 dead, including 12 police, one paramilitary, and two civilians," a local police official told AFP.

Sarfaraz Bugti, Balochistan home minister added: "So far 15 people have been injured in the blast seven of whom are in critical condition."

An AFP reporter at the site saw three burnt out vehicles that had been blown up in the explosion, while human remains lay strewn across the ground, walls, and electric poles along with items of clothing including the caps and shoes of policemen.