Car bomb blast in Pakistani city

Four people, including a woman and a policeman, have been hurt in a car bomb blast in the Pakistani city of Quetta.

The bomb went off near the office of the chief minister of the south-western province of Balochistan of which Quetta is the capital.

Police officials say they suspect that "nationalist" groups opposed to the government carried out the attack.

Quetta has been hit by a string of low-intensity attacks in recent months but no arrests have been made.

Police officials say about 20 kilogrammes of explosive was packed into a car parked behind the office of Chief Minister Jam Mohammad Yousuf.

Mr Yousuf was not hurt but four people are being treated for injuries caused by flying glass.

"It was a big explosion. It blew the car into pieces," Quetta mayor Abdur Rahim Kakar is quoted as saying by the Associated Press.

A BBC correspondent in Quetta says the explosion shook windows in houses more than a mile from the scene.

'Political motives'

Quetta police chief Parvez Rafee Bhati says the attack had "political motives" and that "nationalist elements" opposed to the federal government were behind it.

No arrests have been made as yet.

"It is a continuation of similar incidents which have taken place before," the Reuters news agency quoted Mr Bhati as saying.

In recent months, there have been several incidents in which low-intensity homemade bombs have gone off in Quetta, or rockets have been fired into the city, targeting government installations.

In May a bomb explosion in Balochistan's port city of Gwadar killed three Chinese engineers, and injured several others.

It has also been a target for Islamic militants. In March more than 40 people died in an attack on Shia Muslims.