The bomb that went off on the Pakistani city of Karachi on Monday is the latest in a series of explosions in the country.

This is the second large bomb explosion in Sindh this year. A similar device exploded at a crowded market in the city of Hyderabad on 5 January, injuring at least 18 people.

Police said the latest bomb, which was left by the side of a road, created a half-metre-deep crater.

It was unclear who carried out the attack, for which no-one claimed responsibility.

In December, a bomb killed two people and wounded five in the eastern Pakistani border town of Sialkot.

India blamed

It was the seventh explosion in Punjab province since the country's military leader, General Pervais Musharraf, came to power.

Most of these explosions have been blamed by the Pakistani authorities on India's spy agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (Raw).

However the authorities in Pakistan have seldom come up with concrete evidence to substantiate these allegations.

For the people of Karachi, Monday's bomb blast is the latest in a series of violent incidents in which 4,000 people have been killed in the last four years.

Supporters of rival political and religious groups have been killed on almost a daily basis.

In October, nine Shia Muslims were shot dead in a mosque in an attack which the authorities said could have been carried out by hardline Sunni Muslims.