Deadliest since 2008: Daesh claims blast at Islamabad mosque

• A Daesh-claimed suicide bombing at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad’s Tarlai area killed at least 31 people and wounded 169 during Friday prayers, marking the capital's deadliest attack since the 2008 Marriott bombing.
• Security Confrontation: Witnesses reported a gunfight at the mosque's entrance before the attacker, who had been shot in the thigh by a volunteer, detonated his explosive vest as worshippers began their prayer rituals.

A suicide blast claimed by Daesh at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad killed at least 31 people on Friday, with 169 more wounded in the deadliest attack in Pakistan's capital since the 2008 Marriott hotel bombing.

City officials said 31 people died in the explosion at the Imam Bargah Qasr-e-Khadijatul Kubra mosque in the Tarlai area on the city's outskirts, with scores more being treated for injuries. The death toll was expected to rise further.

The blast occurred at Friday prayers, when mosques around the country are packed with worshippers.

"The attacker was stopped at the gate and detonated himself," a security source told AFP.

Daesh said one of its terrorists had targeted the congregation, detonating an explosive vest and "inflicting a large number of deaths and injuries", according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors terrorist groups communications.

Muhammad Kazim, a 52-year-old worshipper, said an "extremely powerful" explosion ripped through the building as prayers were just starting.

"During the first bow of the Namaz (prayer ritual), we heard gunfire," he told AFP.

"And while we were still in the bowing position, an explosion occurred," he said.

Another worshipper, Imran Mahmood, told AFP there was a gunfight between the bomber, a possible accomplice and volunteer security personnel at the mosque.

"The suicide attacker was trying to move forward, but one of our injured volunteers fired at him from behind, hitting him in the thigh," he told AFP.

He then "detonated the explosives", Mahmood, in his fifties, added.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed that those behind the blast would be found and brought to justice.

The attack was the deadliest in the Pakistani capital since September 2008, when 60 people were killed in a suicide truck bomb blast that destroyed part of the five-star Marriott hotel.