Bomb kills five in southwest Pakistan

A bomb exploded Wednesday in a crowded car repair market in restive southwest Pakistan, killing at least five people and wounding 17, officials said.

The blast happened near a main road in Quetta city, the capital of insurgency-hit Baluchistan province.

"Apparently, the bomb was planted in a bicycle parked in the market," Azhar Shah, a senior police official, told AFP.

A hospital official confirmed the deaths.

"We have received five dead bodies and 17 injured people from the blast site," Rasheed Jamali, a doctor at Quetta's civil hospital, told AFP.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. But the oil-and gas-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran has been badly hit by a decade-long Baluch separatist insurgency as well as sectarian violence.