Lahore suicide blast death toll rises

At least 45 people have been killed and 134 injured in two bomb blasts in Pakistan's second city of Lahore on Friday, according to officials. Both bombers were killed in the blasts, according to local police. They are understood to have been targeting army vehicles.

11 people were killed in a similar bomb attack on Lahore on Monday. Reuters

"We have the heads of both the bombers," senior police official Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq told reporters at the scene.

The bombers approached on foot before detonating the explosives. A small first blast was followed by a larger one, 15 seconds later.

Several people were wounded as crowds gathered for Friday prayers at a nearby mosque.

Army personnel were also injured, some of them seriously, Shafiq added.

The blasts follow a car bomb attack on an investigations unit in Lahore on Monday, in which 15 people were killed. The Taliban in Pakistan later claimed responsibility for the attack.

Until recently relatively few attacks had targeted Lahore, concentrating instead on the north-west border area with Afghanistan, notably the city of Peshawar.

More than 3,000 people have been killed in similar attacks across Pakistan since 2007.