Pakistan's top leaders were to have been in the Islamabad Marriott hotel when it was bombed - but changed venue at the last minute, officials say.

Interior ministry head Rehman Malik said the president, prime minister and military chiefs should have been there.

Rescue team
©AFP
Rescue teams are still combing through debris at the hotel


He told journalists it would have been "a great catastrophe", but did not say why the dinner plans were changed.

A suicide bomb devastated the Marriot on Saturday, killing at least 53 people and wounding more than 266.

"The national assembly speaker had arranged a dinner for the entire leadership - for the president, prime minister and armed services chiefs - at the Marriott that day," Mr Malik told reporters.

"The president and the prime minister changed the venue to the prime minister's house. The function was not held at the Marriott, thus the whole leadership was saved."

Taleban suspects

The heavily guarded hotel was attacked at about 2000 (1500 GMT) on Saturday.

CCTV footage of the moments before the blast show a six-wheeler lorry ramming the security barrier at the hotel gate.

The bomb - believed to have been detonated in the lorry - left a six-metre (20ft) crater.

Rescuers have been combing the wreckage for survivors and bodies.

Most of the dead were Pakistanis. One Vietnamese, a German and an American are known to have died and the Czech ambassador to Pakistan was also killed in the blast, it was confirmed on Sunday.

The blast prompted British Airways to cancel two flights to Pakistan "in light of the security situation".

No-one has yet admitted carrying out the attack, but the Pakistani Taleban are thought to be the most likely perpetrators.



Comment: If that's the case, how did the Taleban know that the President and his ministers were going to have dinner at the Marriott that day?



The Marriott was the most prestigious hotel in the capital, located near government buildings and diplomatic missions. It is popular with foreigners and the Pakistani elite.

The hotel has previously been the target of militants. Last year, a suicide bomber killed himself and one other in an attack at the hotel.

The BBC's Barbara Plett, in Islamabad, says the latest attack might have been retaliation for army bombardments of suspected Taleban targets with jet fighters.



Comment: Or maybe it is related to the late uneasiness of the US-Pakistani relationship.



Earlier on Monday, Pakistan's government said it would take targeted action against the militants, promising raids in some "hotspots" near the border with Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, reports from Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, say the Afghan consul in the city has been kidnapped.

The consul, Abdul Khaliq Farahi, was in a car in a Peshawar suburb when it was attacked by six unidentified men, officials say. His driver died in the attack.