A suicide bomber blew up a trailer packed with explosives outside a hospital in Hangu on Friday, killing up to 17 people in an apparent sectarian attack, police said. It was the fourth bombing since Monday and struck the outskirts of Hangu, a flashpoint for sectarian violence that traditionally flares during the current holy month of Muharram.

"Seventeen people were killed and 17 injured," Hangu police spokesman Fazal Naeem told AFP. "It was a tractor with a trailer a carrying 250 kilograms of explosives hidden underneath materials for construction work at the hospital," he said. The bomber detonated the explosives at the gate of the hospital, punching a large crater in the ground, police said.

Local police chief Abdul Rashid earlier put the death toll at nine. The hospital is run by a private Shia trust, which also operated a nearby Shia mosque and seminary, local officials said. The blast partially damaged the mosque, vehicles and houses, Rashid said.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2010