Serial blasts near Pak War College, four killed

Lahore: At least seven people were killed in a series of blasts on Tuesday near a naval college in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, police said.

"I saw a fully charred body," a Reuters photographer at the scene said. "A black cloud of smoke was rising from the scene as I reached there." Pakistan is reeling from a bombing campaign waged by Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and the Taliban.

Two blasts were heard near the Pakistan Navy War College, while another two blasts were heard elsewhere in the city minutes later, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear if they were separate blasts or linked to an original explosion.

Dawn TV said a suicide bomber had been responsible. Interior Minister Hamid Nawaz told Reuters the blasts occurred inside the naval college, but he could not confirm the number of casualties or provide other details.

A navy spokesman told Reuters that a suicide bomber, possibly two of them, had driven a truck to the entrance of the Pakistan Navy War College in the historic city of Lahore, about 290 kms southeast of the capital, Islamabad.

He said the bombers and one navy staffer had died, but police put the toll at 5 dead.

Television pictures showed a damaged truck near the bent and buckled gates of the college. Emergency vehicles were seen rushing in and out of the premises.

Police put the immediate death toll at four, while local TV stations said six had died.

Over 500 people have been killed in militant related violence since the start of this year.

Lahore, the capital of Punjab province, has rarely been targetted although a suicide bomber killed 19 people, mostly police, in an attack near the High Court in January.