Two suicide bombers have killed at least 53 people attending a church service in Pakistan. Source: AAP
A TWIN suicide bombing has killed more than 70 people at a church service in northwest Pakistan, the attack believed to be the deadliest on Christians in the country.
The bombers struck at the end of a service at All Saints Church in Peshawar, the main town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which has borne the brunt of a bloody Islamist insurgency in recent years.
Doctor Arshad Javed of Peshawar's Lady Reading Hospital said 72 people had been killed and more than 100 wounded.
Provincial health minister Shaukat Ali Yousufzai confirmed the death toll and told AFP the provincial government had announced a three-day period of mourning in the state.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif condemned the "cruel" attack, saying it violated the tenets of Islam.
Sahibzada Anees, one of Peshawar's most senior officials, told reporters the bombers struck when the service had just ended.
"Most of the wounded are in critical condition," he said.
"We are in an area which is a target of terrorism and within that area there was a special security arrangement for the church. We are in a rescue phase and once it is over we will investigate what went wrong."
Former minister for inter-faith harmony Paul Bhatti and provincial lawmaker Fredrich Azeem Ghauri both said the attack was the deadliest ever targeting Christians in Pakistan.
The small and largely impoverished Christian community suffers discrimination in the overwhelmingly Muslim-majority nation but bombings against them are extremely rare.
Schoolteacher Nazir Khan, 50, said at least 400 worshippers were greeting each other when there was a huge explosion.
"A huge blast threw me on the floor and as soon as I regained my senses, a second blast took place and I saw wounded people everywhere," he said.
An AFP reporter saw shreds of human flesh and bloodstains on the walls and floor of the church, its windows ripped apart by the blast.
Pages of a Bible were scattered near the altar and rice meals mingled with dust on the floor amid shattered benches.
Walls were gouged with ball bearings used in the explosives, he said.
Grieving relatives blocked the main Grand Trunk Road highway with bodies of the victims to protest against the killings.
Christians in Karachi, Lahore, Multan and other cities also staged demonstrations to condemn the killings and demand state protection.
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