Twenty dead in blast at Pakistani hospital

A bomb went off in the compound of a hospital in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday killing 20 people, a senior government official said.

"We don't know whether it was a suicide attack but the bomb went off in the compound. I have initial reports of 20 dead," said Syed Mohsin Shah, a senior city government official.

Supporters of a Shi'ite Muslim leader were protesting outside the hospital in the town of Dera Ismail Khan when the bomb went off. The Shi'ite leader was shot dead earlier on Tuesday and his body taken to the hospital.