Five killed in attack on Pakistan Shi'ite gathering, 70 hurt

ERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (REUTERS) - A bomb killed at least five people and wounded about 70 near a Shi'ite procession in Pakistan on Sunday, police said, as the sect braced for major sectarian attacks by Sunni militants during a critical event in their religious calendar.

Television footage showed the wounded being carried away in the north-western city of Dera Ismail Khan, where a bomb targeting Shi'ites killed at least seven people, including four children, on Saturday.

The bomb, planted in a shop beside a street market, also wounded five security officials, said senior police official Malik Mushtaq.

A doctor at a hospital in Dera Ismail Khan said five people were killed and 70 wounded. "There is a lack of ambulances and not enough hospital beds," he said. "People brought many of the injured to the hospital on rickshaws."