The outlet was in the first row of worshipers.. A large increase in the death toll of the “Red Zone” mosque

The death toll from a suicide bombing inside a crowded mosque in a heavily fortified security compound in Pakistan on Monday rose to 59, in the latest attack targeting police in the volatile country.

Police said the attacker appeared to have crossed several checkpoints guarded by security forces to reach the “Red Zone” complex, which includes police headquarters and an anti-terrorism department in the northwestern city of Peshawar.

The previous reported death toll was 32.

“It was a suicide bombing,” Peshawar police chief Ejaz Khan told Reuters. He added that 170 were wounded, many of them in critical condition.

The hospital official, Mohamed Assem, said in a statement that the death toll rose to 59 after several people succumbed to their wounds.

The attack came a day before a team from the International Monetary Fund was sent to Islamabad to begin talks on opening financing for the South Asian country’s economy, which is suffering from a balance of payments crisis.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif condemned the attack.

Officials said the bomber detonated the bomb while hundreds of people were queuing for prayers.

“We found traces of explosives,” Khan told reporters, adding that there was clearly a security breach, as the bomber infiltrated through the most secured area of ​​the compound.

An investigation is underway to find out how the attacker breached such a security cordon and whether there was any insider help.

Khan said the mosque held up to 400 worshipers, and that most of the dead were policemen.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blast, the worst in Peshawar since March of last year, when a suicide bombing claimed by ISIS in a Shiite mosque during Friday prayers killed at least 58 and wounded about 200.

Armed groups, including ISIS and the Pakistani Taliban, often target the city of Peshawar, which borders Pakistan’s tribal areas on the border with Afghanistan, which are currently under Taliban administration.

“We have determined that the terrorist was standing in the front row (of the worshipers),” Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told local news station Geo TV.

“When the imam said ‘God is great’, a big bang was heard,” policeman Mushtaq Khan, who was wounded in the head, told reporters while lying on a hospital bed.

“We did not understand what happened because the explosion was deafening. It pushed me out of the balcony. The walls and ceiling fell on me. Thank God he saved me.”

The explosion led to the fall of the upper floor of the mosque, stranding dozens of worshipers in the rubble. Television footage showed rescuers clearing the rubble of the collapsed roof to reach the trapped victims.

“We cannot say how many people are still under the rubble,” said the provincial governor, Haji Ghulam Ali.

“The sheer scale of the human tragedy is unimaginable,” Prime Minister Sharif said. “The nation is overwhelmed with a deep sense of grief. I have no doubt that terrorism is the number one challenge to our national security.”

Police and rescue workers rushed the injured to hospitals.

Sharif, who appealed to his party to donate blood in hospitals, said that those who target Muslims during prayer have nothing to do with Islam.