A bomb blast ripped through a crowded bazaar in an area of Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region Sunday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens more, officials said.

A bomb blast ripped through a crowded bazaar in an area of Pakistan's northwestern tribal region Sunday, killing at least 12 people and wounding dozens more, officials said.

The death toll was expected to rise after the explosion at the Eidgah used-clothes market in Parachinar city, the capital of Kurram tribal district on the border with Afghanistan.

"At least 12 have died and around 50 have been injured," said Amjad Ali Khan, the political administrator of Kurram.

Two senior police officials who requested anonymity confirmed the incident.

"A bomb disposal squad has reached the spot and is trying to ascertain the nature of the blast," one of them added.

Local television footage showed hundreds of male market goers fleeing the area, which was strewn with clothing and debris, as police tried to cordon off the location and ambulances rushed to the site.

A doctor at the district headquarters hospital, where the wounded were taken, told AFP most of them were in critical condition and the death toll could increase.