PESHAWAR: The death toll in Wednesday’s bomb blast in the city’s Meena Bazaar rose to 117 on Thursday evening and rescue workers believed that some bodies were still in the debris of the collapsed buildings.

A spokesman for the Edhi Foundation told Dawn that he himself had counted 117 bodies. He said that 14 madressah students were still trapped in a mosque destroyed by the blast and only one of the bodies had been retrieved so far.

However, SSP (coordination) Mohammad Alam Shinwari said that 105 bodies had been counted and now parts of the bodies were being recovered. Some parts of the vehicle used in the blast had been found, he added.

Officials of the Lady Reading Hospital said that two bodies had been identified by their relatives on Thursday morning.

The LRH issued a list of 105 dead people and 168 injured. The officials said that 81 people had been brought dead while two died in the hospital.

An aged woman, Mrs Shaheen, told Dawn that her young nephew Naeem Khan, who had a shop in the market, was missing after the blast and police were not allowing her to go near the scene.

Riaz Khan, of Jatan Street in Yakathut, said that his brother-in-law Abrar Khan, his wife Bebi Begum and their seven children had died in the blast.

Four of the bodies were found and buried. They were badly mutilated.