At least four people were killed and at least 12 were injured in the bomb explosion in a parking lot of a hotel in Quetta in Southwest Pakistan late Wednesday local time, media reported.
Fire breaks out at the blast site in Quetta, Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, on April 21, 2021. Three people were killed and 11 others injured when a bomb went off inside the parking area of Serena hotel in Balochistan province Wednesday night, hospital sources said.(Photo: Xinhua)
The bomb exploded minutes before the Chinese personnel's return to the hotel in Quetta, the embassy told the Global Times.
According to reports, Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong and other Chinese diplomats were staying at the hotel on the day of the explosion, said Pakistan's Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmad. However, the Chinese personnel were not in the hotel at the time of the explosion.
Fire breaks out at the blast site in Quetta, Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, on April 21, 2021. Three people were killed and 11 others injured when a bomb went off inside the parking area of Serena hotel in Balochistan province Wednesday night, hospital sources said.(Photo: Xinhua)
Local police said that an initial investigation revealed that the explosive device was planted in a car which was parked in the hotel's parking area. The explosion was targeting a vehicle carrying a senior police officer, Reuters reported on Thursday.
According to Reuters, the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the blast. "It was a suicide attack in which our suicide bomber used his explosives-filled car in the hotel," a spokesman for the militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) wrote in a text message to a Reuters reporter.
The province is home to the newly expanded Gwadar deep-water port that is key to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor. The Chinese Ambassador Nong Rong had earlier in the day met provincial Chief Minister Jam Kamal in the city, according to a tweet from the provincial government spokesman, Liaquat Shahwani.
Fire breaks out at the blast site in Quetta, Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, on April 21, 2021. Three people were killed and 11 others injured when a bomb went off inside the parking area of Serena hotel in Balochistan province Wednesday night, hospital sources said.(Photo: Xinhua)
Security forces arrive at the blast site in Quetta, Pakistan's southwest Balochistan province, on April 21, 2021. Three people were killed and 11 others injured when a bomb went off inside the parking area of Serena hotel in Balochistan province Wednesday night, hospital sources said.(Photo: Xinhua)
