At least 56 people reported killed in blast at mosque in north-west Pakistan. Rescue action is still going on inside the mosque.

A powerful bomb exploded inside a Shiite Muslim mosque in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, killing at least 56 worshippers and wounding some 65 others, many of them critically, police said.

The blast occurred as worshippers had collected in the Kucha Risaldar mosque in Peshawar’s old city for Friday prayers.

Ambulances rushed through congested narrow streets carrying the wounded to Lady Reading Hospital.

Peshawar police chief Muhammed Ejaz Khan said the violence started when two armed attackers opened fire on police outside the mosque.

One attacker and one policeman were killed in the gunfight, and another police official was wounded. The remaining attacker then entered the mosque and detonated a bomb.

At least 150 worshippers were inside the mosque at the time of the explosion, said witnesses.

No-one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, but both the so-called Islamic State group (IS) and a violent Pakistani Taliban organisation have carried out similar attacks in the region, located near the border with neighbouring Afghanistan.