ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Four foreign aid workers and three Pakistani children were killed in a bombing near a school in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, security officials and police said.
"They were travelling in a car with some Pakistani journalists when the blast happened. A roof of a school collapsed. Some (people) might be trapped," Naikullah Khan, a police official in the region, told Reuters by telephone.
Police said 45 people were wounded in the blast near Swat Valley, an area that the military had largely cleared of militants in an offensive nearly a year ago.
The blast, which police said was triggered by a remote-controlled device, highlighted the resilience of Taliban militants determined to topple the government of President Asif Ali Zardari, a deeply unpopular pro-American leader.
"The wounded are still being brought in," Wakil Mohammad, senior doctor at Dir hospital, told Reuters by telephone.
The Taliban have bombed markets, schools and military and police facilities despite major government security crackdowns that have destroyed some of their bases and U.S. drone aircraft attacks that have killed their leaders.
The United States is leaning heavily on long-time ally Pakistan to help it stabilise Afghanistan, a top foreign policy priority for President Barack Obama.
(Additional reporting by Kamran Haider; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)