At least 20 people were killed on Tuesday and 127 others were injured when a bomb planted by a suspected militant exploded at a filling station in Pakistan’s central Punjab province.

At least 20 people were killed on Tuesday and 127 others were injured when a bomb planted by a suspected militant exploded at a filling station in Pakistan's central Punjab province.

"It was a car bomb blast. The explosive was planted in a car. We are investigating whether a suicide bomber was involved or not," said Aftab Cheema, regional police chief in Faisalabad, the country's textile-making capital.
"We fear the death toll may rise because the condition of some of the injured is very critical," Cheema added.

City commissioner Tahir Husain told private Geo television that rescue officials were heaving bricks and metal away to save those trapped.
"There are some people trapped under the building rubble. We have deployed our cranes and machinery to rescue them very soon," he added.

Husain told private TV channel Waqt that no suicide attacker was involved.
"It was not a suicide attack. It was a planted bomb blast. The bomb exploded near the gas cylinders that triggered a bigger blast," he said.

He also said that that the attack could have targeted government buildings close to the filling station, which sold compressed natural gas for vehicles, adding that some of the buildings were damaged in the blast.