A car bomb killed at least 37 people on Sunday in Peshawar, northwestern Pakistan, officials said, the third deadly strike to hit the city in a week.

The bomb caused carnage in the busy Kissa Khwani market in the city, which is the gateway to tribal regions that are a stronghold of militants linked to the Taliban and al-Qaida.

"The blast killed at least 37 people," top local administration official Sahebzada Muhammad Anis said.

A senior official at Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital, Dr Arshad Javaid, confirmed the death toll and said at least 103 people were injured. He said the dead included two women and six children aged 5 to 9.

The bomb went off near a police station, but officials said it did not appear to have been the target.

"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 religion," he said in comments released by his office. The blast caused major destruction, toppling a two-story building and gutting several shops.

Thick gray clouds engulfed the area after several shops caught fire. At least 50 shops were either damaged or destroyed.

Rescuers pulled several bodies from a passenger minivan that was passing the explosives-laden vehicle when it exploded.

Officials and rescue workers were collecting bodies and putting them in ambulances for more than an hour after the blast.

In a separate development, at least 371 people were killed and more than 750 others injured on Saturday in two earthquakes that hit Pakistan's southwest Balochistan Province, officials said.

AFP-Xinhua

(China Daily 09/30/2013 page10)