Karachi suicide bombing kills three Chinese teachers and Pakistani

KARACHI, Pakistan - A suspected female suicide bomber killed three Chinese teachers in Karachi on Tuesday, police and officials said, in the first major attack this year against nationals of long-time ally China working in Pakistan.

The three were among passengers on a minibus returning to Karachi university after a lunch break when the bomb exploded at the entrance to the university's Confucius Institute, killing the Chinese and a Pakistani national, police and a university employee said.

A separatist group, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) claimed responsibility for the blast, adding in an email to Reuters the attack was carried out by a woman suicide bomber.

Karachi police chief Ghulam Nabi told reporters the blast killed three foreigners and a local.

"The reports we have got is that they're Chinese," he said, adding the Chinese were teachers at the Confucius Institute, a Chinese language and cultural centre.

A local guard and another Chinese were also wounded in the minibus.

Local media showed a CCTV footage of a woman wearing a backpack standing close to the bus shortly before the bomb went off and sent up billowing clouds of fire and smoke.

Police did not verify the footage.

Local media showed the wrecked minibus dotted with shrapnel holes, and witnesses said the explosion was so big that it rattled the windowpanes of other buildings on the sprawling campus.