Van blast in Pakistan's Karachi kills four

[April 26, 2022]   ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A blast ripped through a passenger van on Tuesday in Pakistan's busy southern port city of Karachi, killing four people, police said, but it was not immediately clear if the incident was the result of a planted device or a suicide attack.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which took place near a university campus.

"It is too early to say what kind of a blast it is," police officer Muqaddas Haider told reporters. "We have a confirmation of four deaths, but I can't say anything about their identities."

He declined to confirm domestic television reports that some foreigners were among the occupants of the van, including three Chinese women.

A grouping of Sunni militant outfits, Pakistani Taliban or Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which has links to al Qaeda and the Islamic State militant group, recently said it had sent suicide bombers to carry out attacks in the south Asian nation.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

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