(VOVworld) - Local officials say at least 20 people have been killed after a bomb blast at a Shiite mosque in southern Pakistan. 

Dozens of people were wounded in the attack (Photo: EPA)

The explosion went off during midday prayers in Shikarpur, in Sindh province, roughly 500 kilometers north of the port city of Karachi. Dr. Shaukat Ali Memon, who heads the hospital in Shikarpur, told Pakistani television that 50 people, many severely wounded, were brought in. No group has claimed the responsibility for the attack. Sectarian violence has been on the rise in Pakistan, where radical Sunni Islamist groups often target mosques frequented by Shias, whom they see as infidels.