The death toll in twin blasts outside a church in the eastern city of Lahore has risen to ten, Pakistan hospital officials said.

Dr Anjum Habib Vohra said 48 people were also wounded in the violence.

A senior police official in Lahore, Haider Ashraf, said the explosions occurred in quick succession in the Christian neighbourhood of Youhana Abad while services were being held inside the church.

Mr Ashraf said police are investigating whether the blasts came from a planted bomb or a suicide attack.

But a spokesman for a faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the violence and said it was the work of suicide bombers.

After the blasts, angry mobs attacked two people they suspected of being involved.

Police said they burned to death one person they believed was involved in the attack and tried to lynch another.

Two police who were protecting the church were also killed in the explosions.

The explosions occurred in quick succession during Sunday services inside a Roman Catholic church.

One witness told Pakistan's Geo television that the main gate to the church was closed so people were using a smaller gate.

"One bomber exploded himself near that gate, that created chaos and during the course there was another blast," he said.

In the aftermath of the blasts the mood quickly turned violent. It is a sign of how on edge much of the country is after years of militant violence including an attack on a Peshawar school in December that killed 150 people - mostly students.

Militants appear to be targeting minorities more intensively recently, including a string of mosques belonging to members of the Shiite Muslim minority sect. In 2013, twin blasts at a church in Peshawar killed 85 people.

"There will be more of such attacks," warned Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Taliban faction.

Life in Pakistan can be fraught with danger for religious minorities, especially Christians. They have been targeted by extremist Sunni Muslim militants who object to their faith and see them closely aligned with the West. They are also often discriminated against in wider society.

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