Six dead as blast rips through Pak police van

Six people were killed when a powerful roadside bomb ripped through a police van in a northwestern Pakistan town.

A bomb planted in a police van exploded Sunday in northwestern Pakistan, killing six people and wounding five others, an official said.

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The remote control bomb went off in the police vehicle while it was on a routine patrol in Dera Ismail Khan, a city in northwestern Pakistan, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) southwest of the capital Islamabad, local police official Dar Ali Khattak said.

Three policemen, two paramilitary soldiers and a passer-by were killed in the explosion on the road in the city's Kotli Imam neighborhood, Khattak said.

At least two of the injured were seriously hurt and were taken to a state-run hospital, said Mohammed Zafar, a doctor at the facility. No has claimed responsibility for the explosion and Khattak said police will investigate.

Dera Ismail Khan is located near South Waziristan tribal region, where, according to military officials, Islamic militants are hiding. The fightes have been blamed for attacks on security froces.