Deadly bomb blast in Pakistan A deadly car bomb exploded on a crowded street in northwestern Pakistan, in the third blast to hit the troubled city of Peshawar in a week, officials said. A car bomb has killed at least 37 people in Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar, officials say, the third deadly strike to hit the city in a week. The bomb caused carnage in the busy Kissa Khwani market in the city, the gateway to tribal regions which are a stronghold of militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. "The blast killed at least 37 people," said top local administration official Sahebzada Muhammad Anis. Deadly blast: a Pakistani man carries an injured blast victim at the site of a bomb explosion in the busy Kissa Khwani market in Peshawar. Photo: Hasham Ahmed A senior official at Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, Arshad Javaid, confirmed the new toll and said at least 103 people were injured. He said the dead included two women and six children aged five to nine. The bomb went off near a police station but officials said it did not appear to have been the target. A Pakistani man carry an injured child away from the site of a car bomb attack. "It looks like the market was the target," said bomb disposal chief Shafqat Malik. He said a car parked by the roadside had apparently been converted into a remote-controlled bomb. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who is in New York for the UN General Assembly, strongly condemned the blast. "Those involved in the killing of innocent people are devoid of humanity and all religions," he said in comments released by his office. The blast caused major destruction, toppling a two-storey building and gutting several shops, an AFP reporter at the scene saw. Thick grey clouds engulfed the entire area after several shops caught fire. At least 50 shops were either damaged or completely destroyed. Human limbs, blood, broken glass, stationery, blood-soaked clothes and sandals littered the road. Rescuers pulled several bodies from a passenger minivan which was passing the explosives-laden vehicle when it exploded. Officials and rescue workers were collecting body parts and bodies and putting them in ambulances for over an hour after the blast. On Sunday last week a twin suicide attack at a Peshawar church killed 82 people, triggering nationwide protests by the Christian community and others demanding better protection for Pakistan's minorities. On Friday a bomb tore through a bus carrying government employees on the edge of Peshawar, killing 18 people. Peshawar is the gateway of the semi-autonomous tribal belt that US officials consider a safe haven for al-Qaeda and other insurgents fighting both in Pakistan and across the border in Afghanistan.