Train is hijacked by gunmen in Pakistan, with 450 passengers taken hostage - AFP

Armed militants have reportedly taken some 450 train passengers hostage and wounded the train driver during an attack in Pakistan's volatile southwestern Balochistan province, AFP reported citing local officials.

'Over 450 passengers onboard are being held hostage by gunmen,' AFP quoted Muhammad Kashif, a senior railway government official in Quetta, the capital of the province, as saying.

The Jaffar Express was on its way from Quetta in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan province to Peshawar in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa when it was fired on, railway officials said. 

Officials from the provincial government did not confirm on hostages being taken.

In a statement claiming the the assault, the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) said gunmen bombed the railway track and took control of the train in remote Sibi district.