Motorbike suicide bomber kills 62 as official's office targeted

The bomber detonated his explosives near the Yakaghund village office of a top administrator of the Mohmand tribal region, Rasool Khan.

Mr Khan, who was in his office at the time, escaped unharmed. He said some 70 to 80 shops in the area were damaged or destroyed by the powerful blast.

A prison building was also damaged, and some 28 prisoners – ordinary criminals, not militants – had apparently escaped, he said.

The attacker was on a motorcycle and trying to gain entry to the office when he was stopped and detonated the bomb.

The attack indicated that militants remain a potent force in Pakistan's tribal belt, which borders Afghanistan, despite army offensives.

The US has praised Pakistan for taking on Islamist extremists who use the tribal region to plan attacks on Western troops across the border, but the militants have often retaliated on Pakistani soil.

Footage from the blast area showed dozens of men searching through piles of yellow brick and mud rubble in search of survivors.

Security official Esa Khan said: "After the blast, I saw destruction. I saw bodies everywhere. I saw the injured crying for help."

Abdul Wadood, 19, was sitting in a vehicle nearby when the attack happened.

"I only heard the deafening blast and lost consciousness," he said, while being treated for head and arm wounds in Peshawar. "I found myself on a hospital bed after opening my eyes.

"I think those who planned or carried out this attack are not humans."

Mohmand is one of several areas in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt where Taliban and al-Qaida are believed to be hiding.

The Pakistani army has carried out operations in Mohmand, but it has been unable to remove the militants.