Lahore suicide attack near police HQ
At least four people have been killed in an explosion in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore.
According to initial reports, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a hotel near the police district in Lahore's Qila Gujjar Singh area.
Several vehicles parked near the site of the blast caught fire and gunshots could be heard from within the police district.
A splinter group of the Pakistan Taliban said it carried out the attack.
Lahore city police chief Captain Mohammad Ameen Wains said the blast appeared to have been caused by a suicide bomber intent on entering Lahore's police headquarters who "blasted himself prematurely".
Several injured
He said several other people had been injured and five or six vehicles damaged.
The shots heard nearby were fired by security personnel following the blast, the Dawn website reported.
Lahore is one of Pakistan's most liberal cities and has seen relatively few attacks in recent years.
Pakistan has suffered two major militant attacks in the last month.
At least 60 people were killed in an attack on a Shia mosque on 30 January in the southern province of Sindh, and a Taliban attack on a Shia mosque in the city of Peshawar on last Friday killed 20.
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