QUETTA: At least one person was killed and 15 others were injured in a hand grenade explosion in Quetta, the capital of volatile Balochistan province, on Monday morning, police said.

Razaq Cheema, the Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Quetta, told Dawn that armed militants hurled a hand grenade at a hotel in Prince Road area of Quetta.

"The hand grenade exploded with a big bang inside the hotel," he said. Subsequently, one person was killed and 15 others were injured in and outside the hotel.

Cheema stated that the assailants managed to escape unhurt from the spot.

Frontier Corps and police reached the spot and cordoned off the area as a probe into the incident went under way.

The CCPO said that the strength of the blast smashed the glasses of nearby shops and markets in the area.

The loud and powerful blast in the commercial hub of Quetta caused panic amongst people. Shopkeepers pulled down their shutters soon after the blast.

The injured persons were rushed to Civil Hospital Quetta for medical treatment.

According to doctors, the condition of three of the injured persons was said to be serious.

Cheema said that all the victims in the blast were civilians who had gathered in the hotel for breakfast.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

However, police suspect Baloch separatists militants to be behind the incident.

Security has been tightened in Quetta and other troubled parts of Balochistan in the aftermath of low scale bomb explosions in the provincial capital and other parts of the province.