At least 50 people were killed and 120 injured when a suspected Taliban suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden car in a busy Peshawar market, the deadliest attack in six months that pushed Pakistan to vow that army would march into militants' den to flush them out.

The blast, in which the bomber used 50 kg of artillery shells and machine gun bullets, ripped through the Khyber Bazar market around noon when a packed bus was passing the suicide bomber's vehicle.

The explosion left blood-soaked bodies strewn on the road in the famous market of the provincial capital of North West Frontier Province and the bus reduced to a mass of charred and twisted metal.

"The car was moving when the blast occurred, which indicates the presence of a suicide bomber," said Assistant IGP Shafqat Malik of the bomb disposal squad.

Fifty people were killed and 120 wounded in the blast, said Shahib Gul, the deputy medical superintendent at Lady Reading Hospital. A woman and nine children were among the dead. Gul said the death toll could rise as 22 of the injured are in a critical condition.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters outside parliament in Islamabad that suicide attacks and bombings by militants are forcing the government to order a crackdown in Waziristan, the main stronghold of the Taliban.

"I believe we have no option except to take action in South Waziristan and North Waziristan," Malik said. No group claimed responsibility for the blast, but Taliban had recently said they would avenge the slaying of their leader Baitullah Mehsud by carrying out suicide attacks. Today's blast was the deadliest attack in Pakistan since a suicide bomber targeted a packed mosque near northwestern town of Jamrud in March, killing about 50.

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