The Marriott Hotel in Islamabad engulfed in flames on Saturday. (AP/PTI)

Islamabad, Sept. 20: The chilling Saturday curse that bloodied Delhi last week struck in Islamabad today as a massive truck bomb devastated the heavily guarded Marriott Hotel, engulfing it in flames and killing at least 60 people.

Witnesses said a large truck rammed the high metal gate of the 258-room hotel around 8pm, when the restaurants were packed with diners, including Muslims breaking the Ramazan fast.

The bombing left a yawning crater, some 40 feet wide, in front of the hotel, where flames spilled out of windows and rescuers ferried a stream of survivors to safety. At least 200 people were wounded.

Police sought in vain to shoo away bystanders for fear of gas leaks and that the building might collapse. Minutes later, the ceiling of the banquet room seating 300 people came crashing down.

The Marriott, just a few hundred yards from the Prime Minister’s home, is a favourite with foreigners, Pakistani politicians and businessmen, although it has been bombed twice before. News conferences are held there when heads of state come calling.

Imtiaz Gul, The Telegraph’s former special correspondent in Islamabad, was breaking fast at the hotel when the explosion occurred.

The Marriott Hotel as it used to be

“I heard a big bang. The restaurant ceiling collapsed. I think not too many lives were lost in the room where I was sitting because the ceiling was made of some light material, probably thermocol,” Gul, who escaped unhurt, said.

The bombing, possibly one of the largest since Pakistan joined the US-led war on terror, came hours after President Asif Ali Zardari vowed in his maiden speech to Parliament to rid the country of the “shackles of terror”.

Police chief Asghar Raza Gardaizi said rescuers had counted at least 40 bodies, most of local people, at the site and he feared there were “dozens more dead inside”.

A crane was brought in to try to get people out. The Army Engineering Corps was called in to help evacuate those trapped. Witnesses spoke of a smaller blast followed by a much larger one.

A US State Department official, using a section of a pipe as a walking stick, led three colleagues through the rubble, one bleeding from the head.

One of the four said they had begun walking towards the rear of the Chinese restaurant after the first blast when the second flung them against the back wall.

“Then we saw a big truck coming through the gates,” he said. “After that it was just smoke and darkness.”

Ambulances rushed to the area, picking their way through carcasses of parked vehicles. No one has taken responsibility for the blast.