Second explosion heard in another upscale neighborhood in Pakistan`s Lahore

ISLAMABAD A powerful explosion hit near a second upscale market in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore on Thursday, a government official said, the latest in a new surge of violence across the country.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

An second explosion in Lahore’s Gulberg area came hours after a blast at another upscale market killed at least five people and wounded 21.

“Initial reports are of an explosion in the Gulberg area,” a Punjab government official told Reuters, requesting anonymity until authorities had more details.

He said the explosion occurred on a main boulevard lined with shopping plazas and restaurants.

Pakistan has been struck by a wave of terrorist attacks in recent weeks, killing at least 130 people across the country and leaving hundreds wounded. The worst of the attacks was at a Sufi shrine in southern Sindh province that killed 90 people this month.

(Reporting and writing by Mehreen Zahra-Malik- Editing by Nick Macfie)