Pakistan market attack kills 42

Men collect their belongings from the debris of a damaged building after it was hit by a bomb blast, which happened on Sunday, in Peshawar September 30, 2013. [Photo/Agencies]

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - The death toll from a car bomb explosion in an ancient market in Pakistan's northwestern city of Peshawar rose to at least 42 on Monday, after the third attack in the area in a week.

The blast ripped through the busy centuries-old market known as Quiswakhani, or the storytellers' bazaar, in Peshawar's old city on Sunday, exactly a week after more than 80 Christians were killed in a twin suicide bomb attack on a nearby church.

A spokesman for the main city hospital said at least 107 people were wounded.

The dead included at least 15 members of a family who had come to the city from a nearby village to make wedding arrangements.

Islamist violence has been on the rise in Pakistan in recent months, undermining Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's efforts to tame the insurgency by launching peace talks with the Taliban.

Pakistan's main Taliban group, which has expressed willingness to talk peace on its conditions, denied responsibility for the latest attack.