PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A pair of suicide bombings killed 62 people and wounded more than 100 others outside a government office in a region along the Afghan border - one of the deadliest assaults in Pakistan this year.
The bombers may have targeted anti-Taliban tribal elders visiting the government office Friday in the village of Yakaghund, part of the Mohmand tribal area in the country's northwest.
The attackers struck within seconds of each other. One of the bombs appeared fairly small but the other was huge, officials said. At least one bomber was on a motorcycle.
The attackers detonated their explosives near the office of Rasool Khan, a deputy Mohmand administrator who escaped unharmed. The tribal elders, including those involved in setting up militias to fight the Taliban, were in the building, but none was hurt, according to Mohmand chief administrator Amjad Ali Khan.
Video footage showed dozens of men searching through piles of yellow brick and mud rubble for survivors. Women and children were among the victims.
Abdul Wadood, 19, was sitting in a vehicle at the time of the bombings.
"I only heard the deafening blast and lost consciousness," said Wawood, who was being treated for head and arm wounds in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) away. "I found myself on a hospital bed after opening my eyes. I think those who planned or carried out this attack are not humans."
Some 70 to 80 shops were damaged or destroyed, while damage to a prison building allowed 28 prisoners - ordinary criminals, not militants - to flee, said Rasool Khan, who gave the casualty figures. (AP)