QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) - At least five people were killed and 25 others wounded on Saturday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a minority Shi'ite colony in southwestern Baluchistan province of Pakistan, police said.

The suicide bomber struck around the sunset in Quetta city's Hazara town home to the ethnic Shi'ite Hazara community.

"I can confirm death of five people including a child and a woman in the suicide attack in Hazara town. Up to 25 people including seven children and three women got injured," Quetta police chief Abdul Razzak Cheema told AFP.

"The suicide bomber blew himself up in a crowded bazaar where people were busy in shopping for the religious festival of Eid-ul-Adha," Cheema said.

"We have sent teams to the area to rescue the injured and investigate details of the attack," Cheema said.

The minority Shi'ite Afghan Hazara community has been attacked on many occasions and travel accompanied by security squads to avoid killings.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack but extermist Sunni sectarian militants have attacked the Shi'ite minority community in the past.

Resource-rich Baluchistan is home to sectarian violence against Shi'ites and a long-running separatist conflict that was revived in 2004, with nationalists seeking to stop what they see as the exploitation of the region's natural resources and alleged rights abuses.