At least eight persons were killed and 24 injured when a suicide bomber today blew up his explosive-laden car outside the embassy of Denmark, near the Indian High Commissioner’s residence in the Pakistani capital. No group claimed responsibility for the blast but security officials said the attack could be linked to the row over caricatures of the Prophet published in Danish newspapers.

Witnesses said the car drove up and stopped outside the embassy in the upmarket Sector F-6/2, where several diplomatic missions are located, shortly before the blast occurred at about 1 pm.

“It was most likely a suicide blast,” said Islamabad SSP Ahmed Latif. Other officials said evidence collected from the site included body parts and ball bearings. Over 30 kg of explosives were packed in the car, they said.

A foreigner, a security guard of the Danish embassy and two policemen were among the dead.

Indian High Commissioner Satyabrata Pal’s two-storey residence, known as India House, is located a little over 200 feet from the blast site. Almost all windows panes of the house were shattered. No one within India House was injured.

The attack was condemned by President Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari.