About four schoolchildren and two other people were killed when a roadside bomb targeting a police patrol vehicle in the volatile south-west Pakistani province exploded.

The attack, in the town of Mastung near the provincial headquarters of Quetta city, occurred early in the morning on Friday when school vans were carrying children to classrooms, local police official Ali Ahmed said.

At least 16 people, the majority of them children, were wounded by the bomb that was planted on a motorbike parked near a girls’ school, Mr Ahmed said.

The primary target was the police patrol vehicle, but a school van was hit by the bomb, said Shahid Rind, spokesman for the provincial government.

Mr Ahmed said that a police officer and a civilian were among the dead.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack, ordering the arrest of the terrorists behind it, his office said in a statement.

Mastung, a sleepy mountainous town near the city of Quetta, has been the hub of Islamist militants from various Sunni groups, including the Islamic State and the Pakistani Taliban.

Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest but most volatile province, borders Afghanistan and Iran.

The province has seen a surge in violence in recent months by Islamist insurgents and sub-national rebels.

(dpa/NAN)