Islamabad - A roadside bombing on Friday killed a young girl and wounded more than a dozen others in the south-western city of Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's minerals-rich Balochistan province, police said.

Explosives strapped to a motorcycle went off outside a bank when the commercial neighbourhood was bustling with life, said Khalid Masood, a senior officer supervising the investigations.

"The child, who appeared to be a vagrant, was among the 14 people injured in the attack, but she succumbed to injuries in the hospital," Masood said.

Four of the blast victims were policemen on duty at the bank and a road intersection.

Television footage showed mangled remains of the motorcycle to which the bomb was attached, with shattered glass and shrapnel littering the blast site.

No group immediately took responsibility for the bombing in Quetta which, like other parts of Balochistan, has seen frequent attacks on government installations by insurgents seeking greater provincial autonomy and a larger share of profit on natural resources, especially gas, extracted in the area.

Pakistan's new coalition government, formed after the February 18 vote, has entered into negotiations with the rebels and freed several Baloch tribal leaders to establish peace in the country's largest but poorest province. (dpa)