ISLAMABAD: A fire erupted at the luxury Marriott Hotel in Islamabad yesterday, injuring 12 people, two months after it was partially reopened following a suicide truck bomb that killed 60 people. Firefighters rushed to the area as thick black smoke billowed out of the flagship building frequented by wealthy businessmen and expatriates, close to the seat of government in the Pakistan capital.
“Twelve people, most of them laborers, were injured in the fire,” Islamabad's Chief Commissioner Kamran Lashari told reporters. “One of the laborers fractured his arm. None of them were seriously injured,” he said. The chief commissioner told Arab News it seemed as though electric short circuits caused the fire.
The chairman of the Capital Development Authority said “welding work was in progress when some material caught fire.”
An emergency paramedic earlier told AFP that five people were evacuated, most of them suffering from respiratory problems. The blaze broke out on the second floor, where repair work was under way, Jamil Khawar, spokesman for the owner, Sadruddin Hashwani, told AFP.
“We were working on the third floor when all of sudden we heard people shouting about the fire. We all ran in panic and saw a ball of thick smoke coming out of the mezzanine,” laborer Mohammad Nadeem told AFP.
“There was smoke everywhere and we began to suffocate. We jumped out of windows on the first floor and in the struggle our colleagues were injured.” An AFP reporter said the outside of the mezzanine floor was blackened by flames and that more than six fire trucks were battling the blaze. On Sept. 20 a suicide bomber rammed a truck packed with 600 kilograms of high explosives into the outer gates of the hotel, sending shockwaves through the capital, especially the expatriate community.
The Marriott has since been surrounded by a massive, bomb-proof wall and visitors are guided through metal detectors and an X-ray machine.
The hotel is due to become fully operational in March, when all 289 rooms - decorated in contemporary style with flat-screen televisions — will be available to guests.
Meanwhile, the Marriott's eight restaurants and coffee shops, which were fully refurbished after the bomb attack, have already reopened.
An army of 2,000 laborers has restored the hotel to much of its former glory. A grand piano and glistening chandeliers grace the lobby. The old lobby, a glass atrium, was shattered in the attack.
"People should feel very safe when they come to this hotel because we have provided the best possible security," Hashwani said when the hotel reopened in December.
Officials blamed the September attack on extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, which has links to Al-Qaeda. Six people have been detained in connection with the bombing.
— With input from agencies
