8 killed, 44 injured in Pakistan's church attack

ISLAMABAD - At least eight people were killed and 44 others injured in a suicide attack at a church in Pakistan's Southwest provincial capital of Quetta on Sunday, hospital sources told Xinhua.

Waseem Baig, spokesperson for a civic hospital, told Xinhua through telephone that eight people were killed and 44 others injured in the suicidal blast in Quetta.

Local reports said that the death toll may further rise as nine were in critical conditions, and that about 10 to 15 kg of explosives were used in the attack.

Interior Minister of the country's Southwest Balochistan Province Sarfraz Bugti said that a group of four terrorists attacked the bethel memorial methodist church located at the Zarghoon Road area of Quetta, the provincial capital of Balochistan.

Bugti said one of the suicide bombers was shot dead by police guards at the main entrance of the church before he could detonate his explosives vest while the second one blew himself up outside of the church wall after he got injured in police firing, and that no attacker could enter the church premises.