At least 41 people were killed and 45 others injured in a suicide attack in northwest Pakistan on Monday, local TV channels reported.?

Security forces stand at the site of a bomb attack in Shangla district October 12, 2009. A suicide bomber killed 41 people in an attack on a Pakistani military convoy passing through a market on Monday as the Taliban claimed responsibility for a weekend raid on the army's headquarters.[Xinhua]

Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Information Minister in North West Frontier Province (NWFP) said that six security men were among those killed in the blasts in Alpuri, the headquarters of Shangla district near the insurgency-hit Swat valley.

Hussain said that another 45 people were injured in the deadliest attack.

Local police said that the bomb exploded near a convoy of security forces in a crowded market area in tehsil Alpuri. A police officer said that three vehicles of the soldiers were destroyed.

Several militants who hided in the nearby area came out and started firing on the convoy after the blasts, the private channel AAJ TV reported.

The injured have been shifted to hospital. Security forces have cordoned off the area.

Unannounced curfew has been imposed in Shangla after the incident.

No group has claimed responsibility for the blast.

Security forces stand at the site of a bomb attack in Shangla district October 12, 2009.[Xinhua]

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has condemned the attack. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has expressed grief over the losses of life in the attack and ordered probe of the incident.