Armed militants took more than 450 train passengers hostage and wounded the train driver in an attack on Tuesday in Pakistan‘s volatile southwestern Balochistan province, officials said.

‘Over 450 passengers onboard are being held hostage by gunmen,’ Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, the capital of the province, told AFP.

The Jaffar Express was on its way from Quetta in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when it was fired on, railway officials said.

In a statement, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), a militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack and said they had taken hostages from the train, including security forces.

Officials from the provincial government or railways did not confirm on hostages being taken.

Train is hijacked by gunmen, with 450 passengers taken hostage | Daily Mail Online