At least ten people, including two children, were killed and 45 others injured in a powerful bomb blast in an industrial area in Karachi on Monday

The blast occurred at the busy Gul Ahmed roundabout at Landhi Industrial Area in Qaidabad at about 8.30 pm. Many of the victims were workers of a nearby textile mill. Police said the bomb was hidden in a motorcycle that was blown to bits.

The commercial area was packed with people at the time of the blast, which was heard from a kilometre away. The explosion ripped through people, crowded around mobile kiosks, selling vegetables and fruits.

Doctors at the Jinnah Hospital said the dead and injured were hit by metal pellets that were packed into the bomb.

A large crowd gathered in the area after the blast, shouting slogans and causing a traffic snarl that hampered ambulances from reaching the site of the explosion. Police and paramilitary Pakistan Rangers rushed to the spot and used batons to push back the crowd.

The Edhi Foundation, a well-known non governmental organisation, rushed 40 ambulances to the area to take the bodies and injured to nearby hospitals.

Pools of blood, shoes, chappals and vegetables lay scattered at the site of blast, which was thronged by a large number of people despite efforts by the security forces to cordon off the area.

In separate messages, President Pervez Musharraf [Images] and caretaker Prime Minister Mohammad Mian Sumroo directed the law-enforcement agencies to hunt down the perpetrators of the attack.

Syed Farhat Abbas, a doctor at Jinnah Hospital, said two children were among the dead.

"Most of the injured were hit by metal pellets. Four of the injured are in a serious condition," he told reporters.

An injured man at Jinnah Hospital said: "I was buying vegetables when there was a loud blast. I didn't know what happened after that. Someone put me in a police car that brought me to the hospital."

President Pervez Musharraf, who was visiting Karachi to inaugurate several development projects, condemned the blast.

Musharraf was chairing a meeting at the Governor House when he was informed about the explosion. He directed officials to take immediate steps to provide the best treatment to the injured.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, the latest in a series of bomb attacks that have rocked Pakistan, claiming hundreds of lives.