At least 50 people including some Saudis were killed and some 200 injured Saturday in an apparent suicide bomb attack on the five-star Marriot hotel in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, witnesses and officials said. Witnesses said a vehicle, apparently a mini truck packed with a large amount of explosives, approached the main entrance of the hotel and blew up at about 7.30 local time (1330 GMT), severely damaging the five-story building, where hundreds of people had been staying.
"A car laden with explosives rammed the gate at the Marriott and so far we have brought out 40 dead bodies, but the number could well be higher," police chief Asghar Raza Gardazi said, according to Reuters.
According to dpa, the Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan, Ali Awadh Asseri, said 16 Saudi nationals were in the hotel at the time of deadly attack and four to six of them were missing.
