At least 38 people, including women and children, were killed after unidentified gunmen opened fire on a convoy of 200 tourist vehicles passing through a remote region of Pakistan.
The vehicles were attacked while passing through Pakistan's Kurram tribal district, near the Afghan border, according to the region's deputy police commissioner.
The gunmen initially targeted the police escort of the convoy, the provincial spokesperson said in a statement.
Police were protecting the convoy after months of sectarian violence in the region, which has left dozens dead this year.
Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, chief secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told the Reuters news agency that Thursday's attack was “a major tragedy”, with the toll “likely to rise”. At least 11 people were injured, he said.
Saeeda Bano – who was in the middle of the convoy – described to BBC Urdu how she feared being killed as she hid under the car seats with her children during the attack.
When the shooting finally stopped after several minutes, she saw injured people and bodies lying on the road.
The details of what happened are not yet known, but Javed Ullah Mehsud, a senior administration official, told AFP that “around 10 attackers” were involved, “shooting indiscriminately from both sides of the road.
Women and children hid in nearby houses while police pursued the attackers, he added.
Most of the passengers traveling in the convoy passing through the mountainous area were Shiites, it said in an earlier statement.
Sunni and Shiite Muslim tribes have clashed several times this year. A previous series of attacks ended after a tribal council called for a ceasefire, according to the Reuters news agency.
Then last month, another attack on passenger vehicles along a road in the area left 15 people dead.
The road taken by Thursday's convoy had only reopened in recent days, with travel limited to convoys benefiting from police protection.
Sectarian violence is often linked to land conflicts in the region.
However, Kurram in northwest Pakistan also borders several Afghan provinces that are home to anti-Shia militant groups, including the Islamic State group and the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
