Source: AFP

LONDON (AFP) — Six Britons were among the hundreds of people injured in the deadly blast which tore through the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad, killing at least 60 people, the Foreign Office confirmed on Sunday.

Three of them were said to work for the British High Commission in Islamabad.

There has been no claim of responsibility for the blast, which gutted the prestigious hotel in the heart of the Pakistani capital, in an attack is widely believed to be the work of Al-Qaeda.

Speaking to Sky News in Manchester, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said that Saturday’s bombing was “completely inexcusable”.

“Terrorism has got to be rooted out and those violent extremists who are trying to destroy life for the purposes of getting propaganda must be told, once and for all, that the whole world is united against what they are doing,” he said.

Britain “will stand with the Pakistan people and do everything we can to help them,” he added, saying he had discussed increasing co-operation on counter-terrorism with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari.

“My best wishes for a speedy recovery go out to those injured in this horrendous attack,” Foreign Secretary David Miliband said in a statement.

“Not only to the High Commission staff, who have been injured whilst serving the UK overseas, but to all those affected by this atrocity.”

Several of the suicide bombers in the July 7, 2005 attacks on the London transport system which killed 52 innocent people had trained at terror camps in Pakistan.

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Tags: blast, Britons, Islamabad, Marriott