Police say at least 24 people have been killed after a bomb exploded at a railway station in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

Dozens of others were injured in the blast, which happened as a popular morning train was about to leave Quetta station in southwestern Pakistan for Peshawar.

A militant group, the Balochistan Liberation Army, said it carried out the bombing in what police are deeming a suicide attack.

There has been a recent surge in deadly attacks in the province, driven by demands for independence and control over local resources.

The city’s commissioner has said that 24 people were killed and about 50 injured in the blast.

Senior police official Muhammad Baloch said the explosion was thought to have been caused by a suicide bomber carrying 6-8kg of explosives. Among the dead and injured were both civilian and military, he told the BBC.

Videos shared on social media appear to show the moment the explosion happened on Saturday morning, with dozens of people visible at the platform.

There is also footage circulating of the aftermath, showing a number of injured people and debris spread across the station.

Abdul Jabbar was among the injured brought to the Civil Hospital. He said that he was entering the station, having purchased a ticket from the booking office, when the explosion happened.

“I can’t describe the horror I faced today, it was like a judgement day has come,” he said.

Muhammad Sohail arrived soon after the explosion had happened to catch his train to Multan.

“Everything was destroyed at the station, and people were laying down on the ground screaming for help,” he said.

A separatist militant group, the Baloch Liberation Army, has claimed responsibility for the attack.

In a statement released on social media, the group said it targeted a Pakistan military unit that was returning from Quetta after completing a training course.

The chief minister of Balochistan called the act deplorable and the perpetrators “worse than animals”. He said the authorities would pursue them and “bring them to their logical end”.

The speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, condemned the blast, saying those responsible were the “enemies of humanity”.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest province and the richest in terms of natural resources, but it is the least developed.

The region shares a volatile border with Iran and Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, and also boasts a vast coastline along the Arabian Sea.

Local groups in Pakistan and Iran are part of a decades-long struggle for greater autonomy in Balochistan.

The Pakistani province has long grappled with extensive exploitation of its resources and this has been a major catalyst for insurgency and unrest.

Locals have blamed governments for exploiting and profiting from resources while neglecting the development of the region itself.