A powerful car bomb accidentally went off in a house in a former stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban in the restive northwest Pakistan on Thursday, killing at least two children and five suspected militants, police said.

The explosion took place before dawn in the city of Mir Ali in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when a militant, identified as commander Rasool Jan, was fitting a bomb in a car at his house, said Irfan Khan, a local police official.

He said the Pakistani Taliban quickly arrived at the scene and removed the bodies of the slain insurgents. Authorities later found the bodies of two children from the rubble of the house that collapsed due to the impact of the explosion.

The blast also badly damaged several nearby homes and wounded 14 people, including women.

Khan said it appeared the car bomb was to be used in an attack in the region where Pakistani Taliban and other insurgents often target security forces with assault rifles, rockets, grenades and suicide car bombings.

He said some of those injured were in critical condition at a hospital.

AP