Security personnel inspect a mosque after a bomb blast in Peshawar on Friday. AFP

At least 56 people were killed and 194 wounded on Friday by a suicide bomb at a Shiite mosque in the northwestern Pakistan city of Peshawar, the deadliest attack in the country since 2018.

The blast tore through the Kocha Risaldar area of the city moments before Friday prayers were to start, shattering the interior and showering the streets with broken glass.

Muhammad Asim Khan, a spokesman for Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, said the death toll had climbed to 56, the deadliest since a July 2018 blast — claimed by the local chapter of Daesh group — killed 149 people at an election rally. He said 50 of the 194 wounded were in "critical condition."

Muhammad Ali Saif, a spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, told AFP the blast was a "suicide attack" and numerous witnesses recounted the moment of detonation.

Ali Asghar saw a man enter the mosque before Friday prayers and open "fire with a pistol," picking out the worshippers "one-by-one." He "then blew himself up," Asghar said.

"I saw a man firing at two policemen before he entered the mosque. Seconds later I heard a big bang," said another witness, Zahid Khan.

The head of Peshawar's bomb disposal unit, Rab Nawaz Khan, told AFP the attacker detonated five to eight kilogrammes of "highly explosive TNT" packed with ball bearings to amplify the damage.

An AFP reporter saw body parts strewn at the blast site, where desperate family members were held back by police.

Police officers shot

Peshawar police chief Muhammad Ijaz Khan told AFP two attackers were involved. He said two police officers were shot at the entrance of the mosque.

"One policeman died on the spot while the other was critically injured," he said.

Muhammad Asim Khan, a spokesman for Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, said "we have declared an emergency at the hospitals and more injured are being brought."

A spokesman for Prime Minister Imran Khan's office said he "strongly condemned" the attack. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Agence France-Presse