Rescuers picked their way yesterday through the smouldering ruins of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad, looking for more bodies after a huge bomb devastated the building in one of Pakistan’s worst terrorist attacks.
The death toll last night stood at 53, with 266 wounded, after a bomber blew up a lorry containing 600kg of explosive on Saturday evening. The body of Ivo Zdarek, the Czech Ambassador, was among those pulled from the rubble. Mr Zdarek, 47, moved to Islamabad only in August. Two Americans, said to be US Defence Department employees, were also killed in the blast but their identities were not revealed.
The Danish intelligence agency said last night that one of its agents, a security advisor, was missing after the attack and was presumed dead.
The bombing happened after dusk on Saturday, when hundreds of people were dining in several restaurants inside the hotel. Closed-circuit TV footage showed the driver of the lorry ramming into the security gates but failing to breach a second barrier.
Rehman Malik, an Interior Ministry official, said that the attacker intended to drive into the lobby of the hotel and had apparently tried to convince the guards to lower the second barrier. When they would not, he blew himself up in the lorry’s cabin. The guards then tried to put out the fire in the lorry, and it was several minutes before the second, enormous blast devastated the Marriott.
