QUETTA: A Taliban suicide bomb packed with ball bearings tore through a hospital on Monday and killed at least 70 people, including more than two-dozen lawyers, as witnesses described tearful staff rushing towards the smoking blast site to help the wounded. The bomber struck a crowd of some 200 people gathered outside the gate of the Civil Hospital’s Emergency Ward after the fatal shooting of a senior local lawyer earlier in the day. More than 100 were wounded, officials said. Video footage showed bodies strewn on the ground, some still smoking, among pools of blood and shattered glass, as survivors cried and comforted one another. Many of the victims were clad in black suits and ties traditionally worn by the lawyers. An AFP journalist was about 20 metres away when the bomb went off. “There were huge black clouds and dirt,” he said. “I ran back to the place and saw dead bodies scattered everywhere and many injured people crying.” Nurses and lawyers wept as medics from inside the hospital rushed out to help dozens of injured, he said. “People were beating their heads, crying and mourning. They were in shock and grief.” Pervez Masih, who was injured by pieces of flying glass, said the blast was so powerful that “we didn’t know what had happened”. “So many friends were martyred,” he said. “Whoever is doing this is not human, he is a beast and has no humanity.” Police confirmed the attack was a suicide blast. “The bomber had strapped some eight kilogrammes of explosives packed with ball bearings and shrapnel on his body,” bomb disposal unit chief Abdul Razzaq told AFP. A faction of the Taliban, Jamaatul Ahrar, claimed responsibility for the blast, with a spokesman vowing more attacks “until the imposition of an Islamic system in Pakistan”. Jamaatul Ahrar has also said it was behind the deadliest attack in Pakistan so far this year, a bombing in a crowded Lahore park that killed 75 people on Easter Sunday. “The death toll has risen to 70 and there are 112 injured,” the head of the provincial health department, Dr Masood Nausherwani, told reporters on Monday. Officials said mobile phone jammers had been activated around the hospitals in the area – a regular precaution after an attack – making it hard to contact officers on the ground to get updated information. The crowd, mainly lawyers and journalists, had gone to the hospital after the death of Bilal Anwar Kasi, the president of the Balochistan Bar Association, in a shooting earlier Monday, said Balochistan Home Secretary Akbar Harifal. Two unidentified gunmen targeted Bilal Kasi as he left his home for work. A police officer said that Shehzad Khan, the cameraman of a private TV channel, also died in the blast while performing his duty. Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti admitted the negligence of security personnel deployed for hospital security and said that those responsible of such a blatant negligence would not be spared. He said that an enquiry would be held to look into their negligence. “Balochistan is in the conflict zone and the government and the people of the province are in a state of war, as they are fighting terrorists. This war will continue till the end of terrorists,” he said. A military operation targeting insurgents was stepped up in 2015 and saw the death toll from militant attacks fall to its lowest since the umbrella Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) was formed in 2007. But analysts have warned the group is still able to carry out major attacks. Jamaatul Ahrar has also claimed responsibility for other suicide blasts, attacks on teams carrying out polio vaccinations, and called for jihad in Myanmar. Balochistan, which borders Iran and Afghanistan, has major oil and gas resources but is afflicted by militancy, sectarian violence and a separatist insurgency.