A picture taken from television shows a man injured after the Pearl Continental hotel blast in Peshawar. (AP)

Peshawar, June 9 (AP): Suicide attackers in a truck launched an assault today on a luxury hotel commonly used by foreigners in Peshawar, firing guns as they stormed past guards and then setting off a huge blast that killed at least five people and wounded 65 more, Pakistani officials said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the largest city in Pakistan’s restive northwest. However, it fit the pattern of recent Taliban attacks the militants said were in retaliation for a military operation against militants in the Swat Valley region.

Local television networks showed part of the Pearl Continental Hotel had been demolished in the blast — reduced to concrete rubble and twisted steel. There was pandemonium outside the hotel, with armed policemen rushing around and Pakistani men looking stunned. One man held a bloody rag to his head.

An AP reporter saw six foreigners being helped out of the hotel. They all had wounds and at least two of them had bandages around their heads. One of them said: “We work for UNHCR.” He also said that officials from the World Food Programme were also staying at the hotel.

Police official Liaqat Ali said he learned from witnesses that three men riding in a truck approached the main gate of the hotel and opened fire at security guards before driving inside.

“They drove the vehicle inside the hotel gates and blew it up on reaching close to the hotel building,” Ali told The Associated Press at the scene.

Sahibzada Anis, a top government official in Peshawar, said at least five people were killed. Another police official Ghulam Mohammad Khan said that so far 65 wounded people had been shifted to various hospitals.