Pakistan Marriott Hotel Bombing Kills 40
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (Sept. 20) – Police say at least 40 people have died in a massive explosion that destroyed the luxury Marriott Hotel in Pakistan’s capital.
Senior police official Asghar Raza Gardaizi said he fears there are dozens more dead inside.
B.K.Bangash, AP
A massive truck bomb ripped through the Marriott Hotel popular with foreigners in Islamabad, Pakistan. Here, the damage.
He said that the Saturday blast, which reverberated throughout Islamabad, was caused by more than a ton of explosives.
The blast left a crater some 30 feet deep in front of the main building.
Flames poured from the windows of the hotel and rescuers ferried a stream of bloodied bodies from the gutted building.
Ahmad Latif, a senior police official, said it was one of the biggest terrorist strikes in Pakistan history.
The Marriott is a favorite place for foreigners to stay and socialize in Islamabad, despite repeated militant attacks. A security guard at the scene, Mohammad Nasir, and several witnesses said a large truck had driven toward the gate before exploding.
The blast left a vast crater, some 30 feet deep in front of the main building, where flames poured from the windows and rescuers ferried a stream of bloodied bodies from the gutted building.
Mohammad Sultan, a hotel employee, said he was in the lobby when something exploded, he fell down and everything temporarily went dark.
“I don’t understand what it was, but it was like the world is finished,” he said.
An Associated Press reporter counted at least nine bodies scattered at the scene. Scores of people, including foreigners, were running out — some of them stained with blood. At a hospital where many of the casualties were taken, official Raja Ejaz said at least two people had died and 25 were wounded.
Ambulances rushed to the area, where a fire burned, smoke hovered and the carcasses of vehicles were thrown about. Windows in buildings hundreds of yards away were shattered.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
But Pakistan, a U.S. ally in the war on terror, has faced a wave of militant violence in recent weeks following army-led offensives against insurgents in its border regions, though the capital has avoided most of the bloodshed.
In January 2007, a security guard blocked a suicide bomber who triggered a blast just outside the Marriott, killing the guard and wounding seven other people.
Associated Press Writer Zarar Khan contributed to this report.
admin @ September 20, 2008