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ISLAMABAD, April 26 (AFP) - At least 10 people were killed and 30 others injured when a powerful bomb ripped through a huge religious gathering of minority Shiite Muslims in Pakistan, officials said Friday.

Local police officer Mohammad Altaf told AFP the attack occurred in Bhakkar district of central Punjab province, where 10,000 devotees were mourning the death of the Prophet Mohammad's grandson, Imam Hussain.

Altaf said the worshippers, who had trekked from all over Pakistan, were staying in tents and the bomb exploded around midnight (1800 GMT Thursday) in an area segregated for women and children.

"It appears to be a terrorist attack," Altaf said.

Bhakkar district hospital official Mohammad Javed said at least 10 people were killed by the explosion.

"We have received dead bodies of nine women and one male child so far," Javed said.

"Around 30 (more) women and children have been brought into the hospital with serious injuries."

Altaf said police suspected the bomb was detonated using a time delay device but the investigation had only begun.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but it appears to be the latest in a recent surge of sectarian killings between Pakistan's majority Sunni and minority Shiite communities.

The violence was triggered on February 26 when gunmen sprayed a Shiite mosque in the northern city of Rawalpindi with automatic gunfire, killing 11 people and wounding 14.

Violence involving Sunni and Shiite militants in Pakistan has claimed hundreds of lives across the country in recent years, but President Pervez Musharraf has vowed to crack down on sectarian bloodshed.

In the latest attack in Punjab, witness Kashif Naqvi said the explosion sent bodies flying 50 metres (160 feet) and left a crater about 1.5 metres long and nearly two metres deep.

"It was deafening, human bodies flew in the air and there was blood all around," Naqvi told AFP by telephone from near the bomb site.

About 75 percent of Pakistan's 140 million people are Sunnis, with Shiites making up just over 20 percent.

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