Two bombs ripped through a gathering of Sunni Muslim radicals in this central Pakistani city of Multan Thursday, killing at least 35 people and wounding over 100 others, police said.

The dawn explosions targetted a meeting of over 1,000 Sunnis who had gathered to mark the first anniversary of the assassination of Sunni militant leader Azam Tariq. Police believe at least one blast was a car bomb.

Witnesses said the suspected sectarian attack, which left Multan's main Rasheedabad Square littered with body parts and blood stains, triggered a stampede which left several people dead.

"At least 35 people are killed and more than 100 have been injured," district police chief Sikandar Hayat told AFP.

"The bomb was probably planted in a car and as soon as the meeting was over it was detonated with a remote control or a timer," Hayat said.

"There is chaos and panic in central Multan and we are trying to control the situation," another police officer Muhammad Yasin told AFP.

The attack follows the suicide bombing of a Shiite Muslim mosque in the eastern Pakistani city of Sialkot last Friday which left over 30 dead, and Sunni leaders were quick to blame Shiite extremists for Tuesday's bombings.

"This attack is carried out by Shiites," radical Sunni Muslim leader Muhammad Ahmed Ludhianvi told AFP. "They are being funded and sponsored by the government of Iran to kill Sunnis in Pakistan."

Fanatics from Pakistan's Sunni majority and Shiite minority, most of whom co-habit peacefully, have been involved in bitter tit-for-tat violence since the 1980s. The conflict has so far cost more than 4,000 lives.

Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid condemned the attack.

"It is an act of brutal terrorism aimed at creating instability in the country," Rashid told AFP.

The prayer gathering in Rasheedabad Square had lasted the whole night and the crowd was beginning to disperse when the dawn calm was shattered by back-to-back explosions.

Police officer Yaseen said witnesses at the scene indicated at least one of the blasts was a car bomb. He said an emergency was declared in the city as ambulances rushed casualties to the city's main Nishtar hospital.

The hospital chief medical officer, Dr Imran Rafiq, told AFP that 10 people died at the scene of the attack and 25 others in hospital. He said several of the injured were in a critical condition and that over 30 people had already been discharged with minor wounds.

Outside the hospital, relatives of the dead and injured chanted slogans against Shiites and vowed to take revenge.

Azam Tariq, the founder of the outlawed Sunni extremist group Sipah-e-Sahaba of Pakistan, was shot dead on October 6 last year near the capital Islamabad. The cleric's death was blamed on Shiite extremists.

Police blamed two radical Sunni Muslim groups-Lashkar-e-Jahngvi and Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP) -- for the attack last week on the Shiite mosque in Sialkot.