Two explosions have torn through a market in the Pakistani city of Lahore, killing up to 40 people and injuring dozens more as crowds gathered for Friday prayers.
Rescue workers and paramedics rushed to the R A Bazaar, a densely populated area of the city of eight million often considered Pakistan's cultural capital.
The area was crowded as the explosions happened shortly before the main Friday prayers were to start, sparking fears the death toll could rise sharply.
"Thirty-nine people were killed and 95 wounded in the attacks," Punjab provincial police chief Tariq Saleem Dogar told reporters on live TV.
"We have collected concrete technical evidence, which will help identify the attackers. Both the attackers were on foot," he added.
"We have the heads of both the bombers," said senior police official Chaudhry Mohammad Shafiq.
Army personnel targeted
"There was an interval of 15 seconds between the two attacks. They were on foot. Their target was army vehicles," he said.
"At least 20 people were killed. Army personnel were injured, some of them are in a serious condition.
"Rescue teams are evacuating bodies and injured from the site and I fear the death toll will be much higher," he added.
The nature of the explosions was not immediately clear, though authorities said it appeared the bombers were targeting the military.
Five soldiers were among the dead.
"According to very initial reports it was a motorcycle or a bicycle that hit a military vehicle. But we are still investigating," Shafiq said.
Second attack in days
The blasts came four days after a suicide car bomber destroyed offices used to interrogate suspected militants in an upmarket district of Lahore.
Fifteen people died in that attack, claimed by Pakistan's mainstream Taliban faction.
A wave of suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan has killed more than 3,000 people since 2007.
Blame has fallen on Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants bitterly opposed to the country's alliance with the United States.
Pakistan's military claims to have made big gains against Taliban and al-Qaeda strongholds over the past year, following major offensives in the northwestern district of Swat and the tribal region of South Waziristan.
