Suicide bomber kills nine attending services at Pakistan church

Nine people were killed and more than 50 wounded when two suicide bombers struck a church in Pakistan holding services ahead of Christmas.

ISIS quickly took credit for the blast, making it the first time the terror cell has claimed bombing a church in Pakistan.

The two assailants got into a scuffle with security forces guarding the Methodist church in Quetta, where a reported 400 people were attending Mass Sunday.

One attacker set off a suicide vest at the main entrance of the Bethel Memorial Methodist Church, the Washington Post reported. A second man was killed in a hail of gunfire after the explosives strapped to his body didn’t detonate.

Moazzam Ansari, the province’s police chief, said the second assailant was stopped before he could make it into the church’s main building.

“Otherwise the loss of lives could have been much higher,” he said.

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At least two women were among those killed, the New York Times reported. Another 10 women and children were among those wounded.

Abdur Razzaq Cheema, Quetta police chief, said authorities are looking for another two suspects.

Photos showed distraught congregants rushing people out of the church. Debris was spewed throughout the church.

A Christmas tree set up next to the pulpit was still standing after the blast.

Hospital spokesman Wasim Baig said 57 people were hospitalized in Quetta after the blast. Seven of those wounded were in critical condition.

Aqil Anjum was in the church when an explosion and gunfire erupted during the service.

“It was chaos,” Anjum told the Associated Press. “Bullets were hitting people inside the closed hall.”

Salim Masih, speaking by phone with the Washington Post, said churchgoers rushed to escape as gunshots and crying became audible.

“Suddenly a huge explosion occurred outside the hall that broke window panes,” he told the newspaper. “I didn’t see the attackers because I was trying to save my kids. I kept them in my arms.”

Christians make up roughly 2% of Pakistan, which has some 198 million citizens.

Christian activist Shamaun Alfred Gill, who’s based in the capital city Islamabad, accused the government of not protecting minority groups in the nation.

“December is a month of Christian religious rituals,” Gill told the New York Times. “We had demanded the government beef up security for churches all over the country. But they have failed to do so.”

While this is the first ISIS-claimed attack on a Pakistani church, other extremist groups have targeted the houses of worship.

The most fatal attack was the double-suicide blast on a Peshawar church, which killed 85 people in September 2013.

Another 15 people were killed at two churches in Lahore when suicide bombers struck each of them.