Pakistan attack: One dead after gunmen storm five-star hotel in Gwadar

Separatist group claims responsibility and says it was targeting Chinese investors in port city

Pearl Continental Hotel, Gwadar (CITI Associates/YouTube)

At least one person has been killed after gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in the Pakistan port city of Gwadar.

Security forces battled four militants armed with rifles and grenades inside the five-star Pearl Continental after they attacked the building on Saturday afternoon. Officials said all four were shot dead.

Most guests at the hotel – popular with foreign tourists and business people – were evacuated, but a security guard was shot and killed.

Police said two other people had been wounded. It was unclear how many had been injured in total.

Gwadar – which is undergoing a vast transformation as part of the $60bn China Pakistan Economic Corridor – lies in the restive province of Balochistan.

The separatist Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it was targeting Chinese investors.

Giving details of the incident, Pakistan’s military said in a statement that the gunmen had killed the guard at the entrance to the hotel when they arrived at 4.50pm local time.

It said that responding security forces had managed to evacuate most guests, cordon off the hotel and corner the attackers in a staircase.

By late Saturday afternoon, the incident appeared to have been brought to a close with a senior security official telling Associated Press: “All four of the terrorists have been killed.”

The hotel itself sits on a hilltop overlooking Gwadar’s port, which has been built by China over the past decade and is the terminus point of a vast developing road, rail and pipe network between the two countries.

The attack comes just weeks after 14 people, including 11 military personnel, were killed by separatist gunmen who stormed a bus in the nearby town of Ormara.