Bomb Blast Kills Six in Northwest Pakistan

Six people including two children were killed and seven injured in a bombing in Pakistan's restive northwest city of Peshawar on Thursday, officials said.

Nobody has so far claimed responsibility for the blast, the latest incident in an upsurge in militant violence in Pakistan.

At least 104 people have been killed in militant attacks across the country in the past week, according to an Agence France Presse tally.

"Six people including two children were killed and seven injured when an explosives-laden car, parked at a motor workshop on the outskirts of Peshawar, blew up," senior police official Najeeb Ur Rehman told AFP.

He said there were 25-30 kilograms (44-66 pounds) of explosives in the bomb, which was detonated with a timer.

"The car was parked in the motor workshop for the last two days and we are not sure if the workshop was the actual target" Najeeb said.

A spokesman for the government-run Lady Reading Hospital confirmed the casualties and said two of the injured are in critical condition.

Shahid Ullah, 40, who owns a nearby drinks shop said he was chatting with a friend outside his shop when the blast occurred.

"There was a loud bang and I saw huge flames coming out of the motor workshop and then I fell to the ground," he said.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said flesh and blood was scattered around the area, and vehicles nearby had also been destroyed.

The past week's violence has included two high-profile strikes on military targets that prompted retaliatory air strikes in northwestern tribal regions on Tuesday.

Jets and helicopter gunships engaged in one of the heaviest bombardments in recent years in North Waziristan, which is a stronghold of militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida, killing 40 people.