A suicide attack on a packed Shi'ite mosque in southwestern Pakistan during Friday prayers killed at least 44 people and wounded 65 others, the country's leading private emergency service said.

Volunteers move a wounded person after suicide bombing in Quetta July 4, 2003. [Reuters]

Describing what was the worst such attack in Pakistan in recent years, witnesses at the main Shi'ite mosque in the center of the city of Quetta reported seeing gunmen firing on worshippers before at least one suicide bomber blew himself up.

"According to our information, 44 people were killed and 65 wounded," Ali Murad of the Edhi Welfare Foundation told Reuters.

Shi'ite cleric Sheikh Mehdi Najafi, who was leading prayers at the time of the attack, gave a toll of 40 dead and 52 injured. Earlier, officials put the toll at 32 dead but said it could rise.

"I saw bodies blown to pieces," said worshipper Khan Ali, 60, who was slightly injured in the attack, which sparked angry protests among Shi'ite Muslims in the city.

No group claimed responsibility for the raid, but officials said it appeared to be linked to rivalry between minority Shi'ites and majority Sunni Muslims, which has often exploded into violence in the past.

Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said it was too early to say who was to blame.

President Pervez Musharraf, in Paris on an official visit, vowed to punish the perpetrators.

Witness accounts of the latest attack varied.

Worshipper Mahmood Hussain said two bearded men fired on worshippers before a third person blew himself up.

Another witness reported seeing two suicide bombers setting off explosives, while the information minister said there were three attackers, two of them suicide bombers who died instantly and a third later who died of his wounds.

SECTARIAN VIOLENCE

Hundreds of people have been killed in sectarian violence involving Sunni and Shi'ite militants in recent years. Violence has worsened again this year after a relative lull in 2002.

Angry crowds of Shi'ites from the Hazara tribe, some armed and firing shots into the air, took to the streets and gathered outside the hospital where the bodies and casualties were taken.

Vehicles, shops and a wing of the hospital were set ablaze and the army was called in. Crowds began to disperse after paramilitary troops used loudspeakers to announce a curfew.

Musharraf vowed a "very strong" response.

"It is unfortunate that some elements in Pakistan are undermining what Pakistan stands for. It is unfortunate that this small minority are able to derail or undermine national feelings," he told reporters.

Sajid Ali Naqvi, head of Islami Tehrik Pakistan, the main Shi'ite political group and an opponent of Musharraf, called it a "terrorist incident" organized with the knowledge of state agencies.

"If these incidents are not halted then terrorism will engulf the entire country," he said.

In the southern port city of Karachi in February, nine Shi'ites were shot dead outside a mosque by gunmen on motorcycles. Days later, two more Shi'ites were killed.

Less than a month ago, 11 police recruits were killed and nine wounded when gunmen opened fire on their vehicle in Quetta. All the victims were Shi'ite Hazaras.

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