At least 15 people have been killed in a blast in one of the largest gambling dens in the volatile Pakistani city of Karachi, officials say.
Some 30 people are reported to have been wounded in the explosion.
Police say the blast was caused by a bomb which rocked an illegal gambling den that officials say is run by a local crime gang.
The attack took place in the Lyari neighbourhood, where a number of warring drug and arms gangs operate.
“We have received fourteen bodies so far and several more people are injured,” Hamid Parihar, Karachi’s police surgeon, told the BBC.
One report said the den was known as the Rummy Club, and is located in a poorer part of the south of the city.
“It was a home-made bomb placed in a packet inside the club,” senior government official Sharfuddin Memon told AFP.
The city, Pakistan’s commercial capital, has seen a series of political and ethnic attacks. Criminal gangs are said to be involved in the violence, which claimed 775 lives last year.
The BBC’s Shoaib Hasan, in Islamabad, said that officials believe the attack was the work of a rival gang, although ethnic motives could also be involved.
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