The attack on the vehicle of US Consulate took place on Abdara Road, University Town. According to rescue sources, it appeared that the explosive material was planted in a vehicle, which exploded with a bang. No group immediately accepted the responsibility of the attack.
The Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Peshawar, Imtiaz Altaf, confirmed the killing of two persons in the explosion. He said the incident looked like a suicide attack in which 100 to 110 kilogrammes of explosive material was used. The injured were rushed to nearby Khyber Teaching Hospital.
Meanwhile, the spokesman of US State Department Victoria Nuland said the US was ready for working along with Pakistani authorities in investigation into the Peshawar blast. The State Department had confirmed the targeting of the vehicle of US consulate. However, they said that no US national was killed. According to it, two US and two Pakistan employees were injured who had been shifted to hospital.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Governor, Barrister Masood Kausar, strongly condemned the suicide attack adjacent to diplomatic offices in Peshawar. Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Communications Dr Arbab Alamgir Khan Khalil has visited the spot of the suicide attack in University Town Peshawar where he inspected the affected buildings and vehicles. Later, he went to the hospital to inquire about the condition of those injured in the blast.
Agencies add: A suicide car bomber rammed a US consulate vehicle in Peshawar on Monday, killing at least two people in the deadliest attack targeting Americans in the country in more than two years. There was some confusion over the death toll - two bodies were recovered from the scene but several Pakistani sources including a provincial minister insisted four people died, including two Americans.
The US embassy issued an initial statement quoting State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland as saying "no US Consulate personnel" were killed, though two Americans and two Pakistanis working for the mission were wounded. A spokeswoman later told AFP that the US embassy was "not aware" that any American citizens were killed.
But Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said four people were killed in the attack on the two-vehicle convoy, two of them Americans. "When the bombing occurred, people sitting in the rear vehicle removed the people from the front vehicle and took them back towards the American Club within a minute," he said. The American Club is a high-security guest house run by the US consulate for its staff.
A half-burnt US passport was recovered from one of the vehicles damaged in the blast, and local police station chief Shahjahan Afridi said investigators have found one of the suicide bomber's legs. He said one of the bodies found at the scene has been identified as a local man while the other was burned beyond recognition.
"I have no information about foreigners because details have not been shared with us," he said. Peshawar police chief Imtiaz Altaf said 19 people were wounded in the blast and that the bomber's vehicle had been packed with up to 110 kilos (240 pounds) of explosives, including more than 10 mortar shells. Witness Mohammad Sadid said he was driving to work at his pharmacy when he heard a deafening blast on the opposite side of the road in University Town neighbourhood.
"It was so powerful that it jolted my car with a massive jerk. My head banged the steering wheel and the windshield. I couldn't understand what had happened. I saw a car on fire. It became a large fireball," he told AFP. Two Americans working for the US consulate were wounded on Monday in a bomb attack on their vehicle in Peshawar, the American embassy said.
The blast also wounded two Pakistani employees of the consulate, the embassy in Islamabad said in a statement. Earlier, regional Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain told reporters at least four people, including two Americans, were killed in an attack by a suicide bomber in a vehicle. "We can confirm that a vehicle belonging to the US consulate in Peshawar was hit in an apparent terrorist attack," the US embassy said in its statement. "Two US personnel and two Pakistani staff of the Consulate were injured and are receiving medical treatment."