Suicide bomber kills 35 in Pakistan hours after 4 killed in consulate shootout

A suicide bomber attacked a market in northern Pakistan on Friday, killing 35 people, per The Associated Press. The attack came just hours after three gunmen assaulted the Chinese consulate in the southern city of Karachi, killing two policemen and two civilians.

In the first Karachi attack, three gunmen tried to enter the consulate in a high-end part of Karachi around 9 a.m. local time, The Washington Post reports. Security officers outside the consulate killed the three gunmen in a shootout, preventing them from reaching staff and diplomats inside. Onlookers also reported seeing an explosion nearby. An investigation into a motive is ongoing, a police official said, but a separatist group opposing China has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Later in the day and farther north, a bomber rode a motorcycle into a weekly market in the town of Kalaya and detonated explosives in a crowd of people buying vegetables, household items, and winter clothes. At least 35 were killed and dozens more were injured, and most were Shiite Muslims, a police official told AP. Pakistan's prime minister called the bombing "an act of terrorism."

The attacks appeared to be unrelated, but they underscored the many security challenges Pakistan faces from separatists and Islamist extremists.