At least 24 people were killed on Sunday in a blast targeting a train carrying military personnel in Pakistan's turbulent southwestern province of Balochistan, a senior official said.
Army servicemen were among the victims in the attack in the provincial capital Quetta, which left more than 50 people injured, AFP reported, citing officials.
The official said that the train carrying army personnel and their family members was going from Quetta to Peshawar in Pakistan's northwest.
The train was passing a signal at Chaman Pattak in Quetta "when an explosive-laden car hit one of the carriages that resulted in a big blast", the official said.
Another official told AFP that the army personnel were travelling to celebrate the Eid holiday, which is due to start on Tuesday.
Images showed a mangled train carriage on its side as people clambered over the wreckage to find survivors. People could be seen carrying blood-soaked victims on stretchers away from a derailed car, while armed security forces stood guard.
The attack happened in an area where security forces are usually stationed, badly damaging several nearby buildings and smashing more than a dozen vehicles parked along the road, according to witnesses and images circulating on social media.
Balochistan government official Babar Yousafzai said authorities were still investigating the blast, but gave no further details.
Quetta is the capital of insurgency-hit Balochistan province.
The oil- and mineral-rich province has long been the scene of a low-level insurgency, with separatist groups such as the outlawed Baloch Liberation Army, or BLA, demanding independence from Pakistan's central government. The insurgents have frequently targeted security forces, government installations and civilians in the province and elsewhere in the country.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion was likely to fall on the BLA, which has claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the past.
Although Pakistani authorities say they have quelled the insurgency, violence in Baluchistan has persisted.
At least 26 people, including soldiers, were killed in 2024 when a suicide bomber attacked a train station in Balochistan.
(With inputs from Associated Press, AFP)