Pakistan Double Bomb Attack Kills 35

Twin bomb blasts minutes apart ripped through a crowded supermarket-hotel complex killing 35 people and injuring over 80 in Pakistan's north-western city of Peshawar.

The attack, one of the deadliest since US Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan on May 2, hit the Khyber Super Market area, which includes residential flats for students, shops, a fruit juices kiosk and a hotel.

At around 11:30 pm local time, the first explosion lured in onlookers and emergency services before a second more powerful blast, believed to be from a suicide strike, went off. The second explosion was heard for miles around.

"At least 35 people were killed and more than 80 injured in the blasts," senior local police official Ijaz Khan said, saying the explosions were only four minutes apart.

Those killed included two journalists working for local English-language newspapers Pakistan Today and The News.

"The first blast was quite small but as people gathered close to the site of the explosion, the second one, which was real big one, went off," said the official.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility, but the Pakistani Taliban have vowed to carry out attacks to avenge the killing of al Qaeda leader bin Laden.

More than 4,400 people have been killed across Pakistan in attacks blamed on Taliban and other Islamist extremist networks based in the nearby tribal belt since government troops stormed a radical mosque in Islamabad in 2007.

"The first blast was triggered by a timed device planted in the bathroom of the hotel while a suicide bomber riding a motorbike blew himself up near the hotel," bomb disposal chief Shafqat Malik said.

"We have found head and some other body parts of the bomber from the attack site," Mr Malik added.

The attacks badly damaged six shops and the hotel.