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<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA suicide bomb and gun attack on a Methodist church in Pakistan has killed at least eight people, officials say.<\/p>\n
Militants stormed the church, which was packed with worshippers at the time, in the city of Quetta, some 65km (40 miles) from the Afghan border.<\/p>\n
The Islamic State group has said it carried out the attack.<\/p>\n
Two suicide bombers were stopped at the entrance to the church, Sarfraz Bugti, the Balochistan region\u2019s home minister, said.<\/p>\n
Had the men got any further, there could have been hundreds of casualties, he added.<\/p>\n
One of the men detonated his bomb vest and the other was stopped in a gunfight with police.<\/p>\n
Two more attackers fled and a search operation is under way, according to reports.<\/p>\n
Dozens of people are known to have been wounded in the attack, which took place during a Sunday service at Bethel Memorial Methodist Church.<\/p>\n
A witness told the BBC that several children attending Sunday school had taken shelter while firing continued around them.<\/p>\n
A spokesman for the foreign affairs ministry, Dr Mohammed Faisal, condemned the attack.<\/p>\n
Attacks in the mainly Sunni Muslim region are not uncommon, often targeting the Hazara Shia Muslim community in suicide bombings.<\/p>\n
But Pakistan\u2019s Christian minority has also frequently been the subject of militant attacks, and guards had been placed near the church in Quetta as a result.<\/p>\n
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Source: BBC<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Homepage](\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/Telesol-ad.jpg\")
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