QUETTA, Nov 2: At least four people, including a woman, were injured when a car bomb exploded at a place behind Chief Minister's House on the Pir Masoom Shah street, here on Tuesday.

The sound of the blast was heard all over city. Walls of many bungalows and houses in the area collapsed and window-panes of most of the nearby buildings including the Chief Minister's House were smashed, police said.

Chief Minister Jam Mir Mohammad Yousuf was in the Chief Minister House at the time of explosion, around 9.55am.

The car stuffed with explosives had been parked near the rest-house of the department of services and general administration.

As the car exploded, its parts hit houses as far away as 500 yards. The shrine of Pir Masoom Shah was also damaged. "The car used in the explosion was stolen from Ferozabad area of Karachi in 2001," police sources said adding that the colour of the car had been changed. "Four persons suffered injuries from the shard of window-panes," hospital sources said, adding that the wounds were minor. According to official sources the saboteurs had packed over 20kg of powerful explosives in car with a timer-device and parked it near the boundary wall of the rest-house between 9am and 9.30am.

Capital city police officer Pervez Rafi Bhatti said that the saboteurs had for the first time used a vehicle for explosion in Quetta."We are in search of the owner of the car," he said.Soon after the explosion, provincial Home Minister Mir Shoaib Nausherwani and senior police officers went to the place along with a heavy contingent of police.

The injured persons were identified as Abdul Malik, Ghulam Mohammad, Shadi Khan and Guloori Bibi. It was the second car bomb explosion in Balochistan; the first in Gwadar on May 3 had killed three Chinese engineers and injured 11 port workers.