Gunmen kill 42 in attack on vehicles in north-west Pakistan

An injured victim awaits hospital treatment (Dilawar Hussain/AP)

Gunmen have opened fire on passenger vehicles carrying Shiite Muslim civilians in north-west Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least 42 and wounding 20 others in one of the deadliest such attacks in recent years.

The attack happened in Kurram, a district in the north-western Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province where sectarian clashes between majority Sunni Muslims and minority Shiites have killed dozens of people in recent months.