A suspected suicide bomber blew up a car outside the Danish embassy in the Pakistani capital on Monday killing at least six people and wounding 20 others, police and hospital officials said.
Pakistan security officials examine the site of a bomb explosion at the Danish Embassy in Islamabad
The blast will raise fresh questions about the safety of foreigners in Pakistan even though militant attacks have dropped off since a new government came to power after a February general election vowing to negotiate to end violence.
Danish newspapers infuriated Muslims around the world when they published cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in late 2005. The cartoons, considered blasphemous by Muslims, sparked deadly protests in 2006 which included attacks on Danish missions.
The embassy in Islamabad was temporarily shut in 2006 after violent protests over the cartoons.
Residents of the neighbourhood said they had feared an attack on the mission.
"Since the printing of cartoons, we always had this fear," said Sana Khalid, a resident of the area. "But what they did to our religion, they deserve it."
The blast destroyed the embassy gate and damaged the front of the building and vehicles in the compound in the upmarket district of Islamabad where other missions and diplomats' houses are located.
Police and security officials said all of the dead and wounded were Pakistanis and the bomb was suspected to have been set off by a suicide bomber in a car.
The blast left a crater about one metre deep on the road outside the mission. A car engine was left about 10 metres from the crater.
Television pictures showed considerable damage to nearby buildings and vehicles. One of the dead appeared to be a Pakistani guard. Two of the dead were policemen, police said.
Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller condemned the attack.
"It's terrible that terrorists commit such acts," he said in an interview on Danish television station TV2 News. Moller said he did not know if any Danes were hurt.
"We already were working under a higher security level in Pakistan ... It's dangerous. There are fanatics and terrorists out there," he said.
Pakistan went through a wave of suicide bombings in the second half of 2007 and early this year but most of the attacks were on the Pakistani security forces and politicians, including former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, killed in a December 27th attack.
Attacks on foreigners have been rare since 2002, but a blast at an Italian restaurant in Islamabad in March killed a Turkish woman and wounded several other foreigners, including some U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents.
The new government has opened talks with militants through intermediaries.
But the talks have raised questions in the United States and among some of Pakistan's other allies, who fear peace deals in Pakistan will free up Taliban and al-Qaeda militants to intensify their war against Western troops in Afghanistan.
The blast coincided with an anti-cartoon rally in the city of Multan attended by about 200 people.
After hearing news of the blast, the protesters shouted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest).
"Whoever commits blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammad will face more serious consequences than this," said city cleric Intizar Hussain. "If it is a suicide attack, than whoever did it will go to heaven."