A suspected car bomb exploded just outside a crowded market in northwest Pakistan today, killing at least 23 people and wounding 55.
The bombing in Charsadda city was the third attack in as many days in or close to Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province. Militants have stepped up attacks in recent weeks in retaliation for an army offensive in a key area along the Afghan border.
The bomb exploded in an intersection just outside the market in Charsadda, located some 40 kilometres north of Peshawar, destroying shops on both sides of the road and knocking down electrical wires.
The blast wounded 55 people, 10 of them critically, said a police spokesman.
Local television showed ambulances ferrying the dead to the hospital along roads littered with debris.
AP