Peshawar, Oct 28 (IANS) At least 45 people were killed and over 100 injured when a massive blast ripped through a busy market in this Pakistani city Wednesday afternoon, shortly after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton began her three-day trip to the country.

The toll in the blast that occurred in Meena Bazar in Peshawar, the capital of the restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP), has climbed to 45, hospital sources told Geo TV. More then 100 people sustained injures and more casualties were feared.

Panic-stricken shopkeepers came to the rescue of the injured, including children and women. They joined security personnel in digging through the debris in the desperate search for survivors.

The injured were shifted to Lady Reading Hospital and other hospitals.

Huge clouds of smoke rose from the area and several shops were reduced to rubble with their roofs blown off in the latest terror strike that comes just five days after a bombing outside a restaurant in the city.

A building completely collapsed and the windowpanes of nearby buildings were shattered.

District Coordination Officer Sahibzada Anees said rescue teams were facing difficulties as several shops caught fire and the firefighters had a tough time entering the congested alleys.

Pakistan has been witnessing a spate of terror attacks, even as the army continues to assault against the Taliban in South Waziristan.

The latest wave of militant violence started with a suicide bombing at the offices of the UN World Food Programme in Islamabad Oct 5. Five employees of the agency were killed.

The most audacious attack came on Oct 10 when 10 terrorists in military uniform laid siege to the Pakistan Army’s General Headquarters in Rawalpindi. At least 19 people, including nine raiders, died in the 22-hour standoff. One militant was arrested.

On Oct 15, gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed two police academies and the offices of Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency in Lahore. A car bomber struck at a police station in the northwestern town of Kohat. At least 38 people including 11 insurgents were killed in a single day.

A twin suicide bombing Oct 20 at the International Islamic University here killed seven people.

On Oct 22, Brigadier Moinuddin Ahmed, who was the head of the UN peacekeeping mission in Sudan, was gunned down in Islamabad along with another soldier.

A day later, 25 people were killed and 27 injured in a series of blasts across Pakistan. Eighteen people died in a landmine explosion in Mohmand Agency while seven were killed when a suicide bomber struck at an air force base in Attock district. Eight people were injured in the Peshawar bombing.