LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) - At least four people including a suicide bomber were killed when a powerful bomb ripped through a Shiite Muslim mosque in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, police said.
The blast was the third deadly attack in the past 10 days as bloody sectarian violence between the majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims spiralled.
Local police officer Zahir Uddin Babar said a suicide bomber carrying the explosives tried to enter the Kashmiryan Mosque where worshippers had gathered for evening prayers.
"When security guards stopped him he opened fire and blew himself up, killing two security guards," Babar said.
The headless body of the bomber was lying at the blast site, located in the Mochi Gate area of the walled city, witnesses said.
Police officer Mohammad Atif said a 12-year-old boy also died in the blast.
Four people were injured, but a hospital official said they were out of danger.
Pieces of human flesh were placed on a stretcher and transported to local hospital in ambulances, witnesses said.
Police had surrounded the mosque and hundreds of people had gathered outside after the explosion.
The blast was the latest in a series of attacks on Shiite or Sunni Muslim targets which have killed more than 70 people in the past 10 days.
A suicide bomb attack on a Shiite mosque in the eastern city of Sialkot killed 30 people on October 1.
It was followed by a car bomb attack on Sunni radicals at a prayer vigil on October 7 which killed 41 people in the central city of Multan.
On Saturday unidentified attackers murdered two Sunni Muslim clerics in the southern port city of Karachi.
Most of Pakistan's Sunni majority and Shiite minority live peacefully together. But fanatics have been involved in bitter tit-for-tat violence since the 1980s. The conflict has so far cost more than 4,000 lives.