ISLAMABAD/LAHORE: A suicide bomber killed at least 65 people, mostly women and children, at a public park in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Sunday, government officials and police said, striking at the heart of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s political base of Punjab.

A suicide bomber triggered the bomb outside a public park, Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, on Sunday, rescue officials and police said.

Salman Rafique, a health adviser for the Punjab provincial government, put the death toll at least 65 people.

“Most of the dead and injured are women and children,” said Mustansar Feroz, police superintendent for the area in which the park is located.

Senior police officer Haider Ashraf says the explosion appeared to have been a suicide bombing, but investigations were ongoing.

He says the area was crowded because Christians are celebrating the Easter holiday and many families were leaving the park when the blast occurred. He says the death toll could still rise as many of the wounded were in a critical condition.

Eyewitnesses said they saw body parts strewn across the parking lot once the dust had settled.

The park was particularly busy on Sunday evening due to the Easter holiday weekend.

Police said it was not yet clear whether the blast had been carried out by a suicide bomber or a remote-controlled devise.

“We cannot rule out that this was a suicide attack but things will be clear soon,” Haider Ashraf DIG Operations Lahore said.

Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation of 190 million people, is plagued by a Taliban insurgency, criminal gangs and sectarian violence. Punjab is its biggest and wealthiest province.

In 2014, Pakistan launched an offensive against Taliban and affiliated fighters in North Waziristan, seeking to deprive them of safe havens from which to launch attacks in both Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Punjab has traditionally been more peaceful than other parts of Pakistan. Sharif’s opponents have accused him of tolerating militancy in return for peace in his province, a charge he strongly denies.

Last year, a bomb killed a popular Pakistani provincial minister and at least eight others when it destroyed the minister’s home in Punjab.