(CNN) – At least 45 people were killed and 55 more injured in a Lahore, Pakistan, suicide blast near the country’s border with India, police and hospital officials said Sunday.
A suicide bomber detonated his vest after a daily parade at the Wagah border crossing, Inspector General Mushtaq Ahmad Sukhera of the Punjab police said. It appears the bomber entered the parade area as people were leaving and set off an explosive vest near a checkpoint, he said.
Footage from CNN affiliate GEO News showed authorities scrambling through the streets, some of them ferrying the injured on stretchers to ambulances. Many onlookers were crying as they spoke to reporters.
Police have cordoned off the area and are investigating, Sukhera said.
Though Sukhera said there were 37 people killed, a doctor in the emergency ward at Ghurki Trust Teaching Hospital said the death toll was 45 people, according to the latest count.
The death toll has risen rapidly since the explosion was first reported.
More than 5 kilograms (11 pounds) of explosives were used in the blast, which was conducted by a male between the ages of 18 and 20, the inspector general said.
Authorities were aware of threats of terrorism, and Pakistan’s paramilitary security force, the Rangers, was prepared, but the crowds at the border were larger than normal so Rangers weren’t able to check everyone as they departed the area, Sukhera said.
Some of the bomber’s body parts were found at the scene, he said.
Every evening for 55 years at the Wagah border crossing between Lahore and Amritsar, India, Pakistan’s Rangers and India’s Border Security Force take part in a “lowering of the flags” ceremony before sunset.
