'Bomb attack' at Pakistan stadium

A suicide bomber has killed one person in an attack outside a stadium in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, police say.

Officials said the bomber walked up to the gate and then blew himself up.

The attack happened as the governor of North West Frontier Province left after a sports tournament. He was unhurt but at least three people were injured.

Correspondents say that local Taleban groups have sprouted up all around the city of three million people, with links to nearby towns and villages.

'Threats'

"The blast took place outside the gate of the sports complex where the inter-provincial games closing ceremony had just ended," a police officer told Reuters news agency.

He said that there had been several casualties.

A police eye witness at the scene of the blast told the BBC that the attack could have been targeted against Iftikhar Hussain, a senior member of the Awami National Party (ANP). He was leaving the stadium as the bomb went off.

The ANP runs the government in North West Frontier Province and is known to be intensely disliked by Taleban and al-Qaeda militants.

Correspondents say that Peshawar faces a significant threat from the Pakistan Taleban, even though the government in June launched a security operation to protect it from potential attacks.

Talking to journalists in Peshawar at the time, the North West Frontier Province (NWFP) police chief, Malik Naveed, said the city had been surrounded by militants on all sides.