PESHAWAR/NOWSHERA - At least 12 persons were killed and 14 others were injured as a result of powerful bomb blast in Resalpur Bazaar of Nowshera Thursday evening. Police sources and eyewitnesses said the bomb was planted to a bicycle stand outside the Descent restaurant and fast food centre. A large number of people were present near the restaurant to get some food stuff, when suddenly the explosive device went off. The intensity of the blast could be judged from the fact that its sound was heard across the district while the body parts of the victims were seen scattered around. The blast also damaged several vehicles and four shops close to the restaurant. Soon after the blast rescuers rushed to the site to retrieve the injured persons from the blast site and shift them to hospitals. The injured were shifted to District Headquarters Hospital Nowshera and Combined Military Hospital. Moving scenes were also witnessed in the hospital where people were searching their near and dear ones in the emergency wards of the DHQ Nowshehra as well as CMH. Soon after the blast, police and security forces rushed to the blast site and cordoned off the area. The commoners were stopped to go near the crime scene in a bid to avert casualties in the expected follow-up blast, which now have become a new tactic of the miscreant elements. The police collected evidence from the site and started investigation. Taking to journalists, DSP Nowshera Akhtar Ali Khan said that around eight-kilogram explosives were used in the attack. Provincial Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain and Provincial Minister for Excise and Taxation Liaquat Shabab visited the blast site and expressed grief and sorrow over the losses of precious lives. They strongly condemned the bomb blast and termed it an inhuman act of terrorists. Agencies add: Hayatullah Khan, a senior police officer who was also at the chaotic scene, told AFP that the dead included two army and one air force personnel. A woman and a child were also killed in the attack, he said. It was a remote-controlled bomb. The bomb disposal squad are collecting more evidence. Private TV channels aired footage showing the debris of the hotel and nearby shops destroyed in the blast. Blood could be seen scattered at the hotels front along with damaged wooden chairs. Police spokesman Turk Ali Shah said the death toll rose when one of the hurt died in hospital. The hotel was destroyed along with an adjacent hotel. Six nearby shops were badly damaged, police officer Hussain said. Nowshera is 50 kilometres northeast of Peshawar. Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack in a statement and reiterated his governments resolve to stamp out the menace of militancy and terrorism from the country. Those playing with the lives of the innocent people have no religion and no faith, they are following their own nefarious designs, he said. Last week, 55 people were killed when a suicide bomber blew himself up at a crowded mosque in Jamrud area of Khyber tribal district, in the deadliest attack for three months. The nuclear-armed Pakistan has suffered years of deadly violence blamed on Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked networks. US special forces killed Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden on May 2 in Abbottabad. The northwest suffers from chronic insecurity largely connected to the semi-autonomous tribal belt near Afghanistan which Washington calls the most dangerous place on Earth and a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda. More than 4,550 people have been killed in suicide attacks and bomb explosions in Pakistan during the last four years, many of them carried out by the Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked extremists.