A SUICIDE bomb attack last night on a hotel frequented by westerners in the centre of the Pakistan capital of Islamabad killed at least 60 people and injured more than 100. Police said it bore the hallmarks of Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

At least two British people were wounded in the explosion at the Marriott hotel, in which more than a ton of explosive was thought to have been detonated. Two British children suffered superficial injuries. The blast was so powerful that it left the entire building in danger of collapse.

The five-star Marriott is a favourite place for overseas businessmen to stay in the city, even though it has previously been a target for militants. Scores of people, including westerners, were seen running out of the building, some of them covered with blood.

Gavin Earle, a British diplomat who was staying on the third floor of the hotel, escaped unhurt. He had been planning an early night, before catching a flight back to London today, when “suddenly there was a huge bang and all the windows shattered into the room.

“It was completely destroyed,” he said. “I ran out and went down the fire escape.”

Mohammad Nasir, a security guard, said he had seen a vehicle beside the hotel that had caught fire and suddenly exploded. “A vehicle 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,” said Asghar Raza Gardazi, the police chief. Another police source said there could be dozens of bodies inside.

An intense fire was still burning on the third and fifth floors of the $300-a-night hotel late last night. Ceilings were collapsing in the intense heat and there were reports of guests still trapped. A crane was brought in to get people out.

Rustam Burdong, the hotel’s events co-ordinator, was on the ground floor when he heard the blast. “All the mirrors in the hotel shattered,” he said. “I ran outside and saw so many dead bodies in front of the lobby that I was forced to turn round, run back and get out the back of the hotel.”

Sadruddin Hashwani, the owner of the hotel, said 112 of the 300 rooms had been occupied when the bomb went off and another 300 people had been attending a reception.

Dozens of cars outside were destroyed; windows were shattered and buildings were damaged hundreds of yards away. The bomb blew an enormous crater in the road by the hotel’s security barriers and acrid smoke drifted in the air.

Only a few hours before the attack, Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan’s new president, had made his first address to parliament, a few hundred yards from the hotel, and said that terrorism had to be rooted out.

The explosion, highlighting Pakistan’s vulnerability to home-grown militant attacks, came as its government was proposing a new international aid body to combat terrorism. Britain has pledged to support the group, called the Pakistan Club, after meetings between Zardari, Gordon Brown and Dav-id Miliband, the foreign secretary. Miliband also agreed to sponsor a letter inviting the other G8 industrialised nations – the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia – plus Saudi Ara-bia, China and the United Arab Emirates, to join.

The aim is to provide Pakistan with a multi-billion-dollar package to help it to tackle terrorism after US operations against Al-Qaeda and Taliban forces, which have caused a national outcry. In the past three weeks US troops have made six incursions into Paki-stani border areas regarded as a hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban operations.

The bombings and ground operations have left scores dead and 300,000 people have left their homes, according to the Pakistan government. Zardari argues that Pakistan cannot deal with the threat unless it is given financial help. “We know the war on terror is our war,” said Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan’s high commissioner to Britain. “We are the worst victims. But the Americans are undermining our efforts.”

He said the scheme was originally the idea of Benazir Bhutto, Zardari’s assassinated wife: “She wanted to mobilise people in the tribal areas to support the government by providing them with water and employment and thus motivate them to help us find the terrorist targets. It’s the old British carrot-and-stick method of colonial times. But the bombings are making this impossible.”

Outrages

October 18, 2007 Suicide bombing aimed at Benazir Bhutto kills 150 people in Karachi

December 27, 2007 Bhutto and more than 20 others die in Rawalpindi attack

August 21, 2008 Suicide bombers in Wah kill 67

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