ISLAMABAD: A suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives at the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Saturday, killing dozens in a brazen attack in the heart of the Pakistani capital (In pictures). According to DawnNews 40 people have been killed in the attack

Police said over 150 people were wounded in the massive explosion, which ruptured a gas pipeline and triggered a huge blaze that engulfed the heavily-guarded site in flames.

Many victims leapt to their deaths from the upper floors of the hotel to escape the fire, a senior security official told AFP, and there were fears more were buried in the debris.

Officials said they were worried that the hotel, a key meeting place for foreigners, would collapse.

The attack also came hours after new President Asif Ali Zardari, who faces a serious challenge in reining in Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, delivered his first address to parliament, which is just a few hundred metres away.

Smoke and flames were shooting out of several floors of the ruined hotel. An AFP photographer saw mutilated bodies amid the carnage, before police and fire officials pushed back the media in case the building came down.

The bombing came as the Marriott's restaurants were packed with families breaking their daily Ramadan fast. The security official said women, children and foreigners were among the dead.

The government ordered the army in to help clear away the piles of concrete and debris after the powerful explosion, which left a huge crater, around 20 feet (six metres) deep and 40 feet wide, at the hotel's main entrance.

Interior ministry official Rehman Malik told reporters the government had received word of a possible attack near the parliamentary offices.

‘We had intelligence reports two days ago that some incident might take place,’ Malik said.

The Associated Press adds: Senior Police Official Asghar Raza Gardaizi said the blast, which reverberated throughout Islamabad, was caused by more than 2,204 pounds (1,000 kilograms) of explosives.

President Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani strongly condemned the attack in a statement.

‘This is terrorism and we have to fight it together as a nation,’ Rehman Malik, the head of Pakistan's Interior Ministry, told reporters at a hospital overflowing with the injured.

Witnesses and officials said a large truck rammed the high metal gate of the hotel at about 8 pm.

Gardaizi said rescuers had counted at least 40 bodies, and he feared that there ‘dozens more dead inside.’ Many of the dead were security personnel.

Associated Press reporters saw at least nine bodies scattered at the scene. Scores of people, including foreigners, ran or staggered out - many of them covered in blood. Witnesses spoke of a smaller blast followed by a much larger one.

A US State Department official using a section of white pipe as a walking stick led three colleagues through the rubble from the charred building, one of them bleeding heavily from a wound on the side of his head.

One of the four, who identified himself only as Tony, said they had begun moving toward the rear of the Chinese restaurant after the first blast when the second one threw them against the back wall.

‘Then we saw a big truck coming to the gates,’ he said. ‘After that, it was just smoke and darkness.’

US embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said officials were trying to account for embassy staff and any other Americans affected. He said he had no other details.

Ambulances rushed to the area, picking their way through the charred carcasses of vehicles that had been in the street outside. Windows in buildings hundreds of meters away were shattered.

Mohammad Sultan, a hotel employee, said he was in the lobby when something exploded, he fell down and everything temporarily went dark.

‘I didn't understand what it was, but it was like the world is finished,’ he said.

Tropical fish from the tanks inside lay among the torn furnishings in the entrance area. Scorched tree limbs from trees near the hotel were tossed hundreds of yards.

DawnNews adds:

At least two American, two British, two Saudis, one Dane, a Libyan and a Lebanese national are among the injured.

At least one US national perished from his wounds after being admitted to the PIMS hospital in Islamabad.

The Danish embassy has not yet been able to confirm whether one of their diplomats has died in the blast as was reported by private television channels earlier.

DawnNews quoted the Saudi ambassador as saying that six Saudi nationals were also missing after the blast.

Casualties were being shifted to the Poly Clinic and PIMS hospitals in Islamabad.
 

Security has been put on high alert across the country, interior ministry sources told DawnNews.
 

According to police sources, at least 15 people were trapped inside the burning hotel, and efforts were underway to try to rescue them.

In a statement released after the blast, President Zardari condemned the brutal attack and vowed to continue fighting militancy and terrorism in Pakistan. Mr. Zardari warned that if the government did not act now, the nation's security would continue to deteriorate.
 

Following the incident an emergency was declared at all major hospitals and Prime Minister Gilani  made a public appeal for donations of blood for the wounded.

In pictures