14 Dead, 21 Hurt in Pakistan Bakery Blast

At least 14 people were killed and more than 20 injured on Sunday when a bomb exploded in a bakery in northwest Pakistan, police and government officials said.

"It was a remote controlled bomb planted in a dustbin at the entrance of the bakery on the main Mall Road in the garrison town of Nowshera," Mian Iftikhar Hussain, the provincial information minister, told Agence France Presse.

"At least 14 people have died and 21 been injured."

The explosion sparked a huge fire which has now been brought under control, he said.

The attack was claimed by the Pakistani Taliban.

"It was a remote-controlled bomb which was planted by our men," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said in a phone call from an undisclosed location.

Nowshera police chief Abdullah Khan confirmed the casualties, saying the dead included three children and three of the injured were in a critical condition.