Bus Explosion in Pakistan Kills at Least 10 Foreigners

A powerful bomb blast early today bent a Pakistan navy tour bus in half and killed at least 10 foreign workers outside a major hotel in the city center.

The blast appeared to be caused by a car bomb. The twisted remains of a vehicle landed a block away, along with body parts of what was believed to be the bomber, said Randall Bennett, chief of security at the U.S. Consulate here.

If confirmed to be a terrorist act, it would be a serious escalation in a city long known for sectarian violence, kidnappings and killings, but not for bombings that target foreigners.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing, which occurred in front of the high-rise Sheraton Hotel and Towers, a popular hotel for foreign businesspeople.

The list of possible suspects is long in this hotbed of religious and political violence where American journalist Daniel Pearl, South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was kidnapped and killed this year while investigating terrorist links.

The trial of his alleged killers, including British-born Islamic militant Ahmad Omar Saeed Sheikh, resumed Tuesday after several delays, including a change of venue because the prosecution team said it had been threatened.

Rahim Khan, the area deputy superintendent of police, said he believed that most of the victims of today’s blast were Germans who were on their way to work at the Karachi port.

Bennett said he doubted that any Americans were on the bus.

The bombing occurred about 7:45 a.m., leaving a crater in the street about 2 yards across and a few feet deep, Bennett said. A hand lay about 20 yards from the twisted remains of the bus.

The blast was so strong that it threw the bus several feet onto the sidewalk, blew out its roof and shattered windows in surrounding buildings.

Waiters from the hotel coffee shop directly in front of blast site crawled into the wreckage to pull out survivors and the dead. Their white aprons soaked in blood, they handed limp corpses down from broken windows.

One waiter carried a dead bus passenger on his back and dropped him onto a waiting gurney that was then pushed into an ambulance.

Tina Baker, a Briton in Karachi on business, said she left her third-floor room in the Sheraton immediately before the bomb went off and was standing by the elevator “when there was this enormous bang.”

“I could feel the pressure of the air move, and then all this dust started coming down. It blew the lock out of my room door,” said Baker, 33. “I can’t even get back into it. The room next door is pretty much a mess.”

Anthony Quinn, another Briton, said his company had put workers up in the Sheraton because it was considered well-protected.

Quinn, who was in the hotel coffee shop having breakfast when the bomb detonated, said several people were injured by flying glass. None of those he saw appeared seriously wounded, he said.

“It was quite surreal,” said Quinn, 46, of Chester, England, who is working in Karachi for an Italian oil company. “There was glass and debris and smoke, and people were just falling down. It knocked me onto the floor, but it took me several seconds to realize it was a bomb.”

A Karachi businessman, who was jogging in the hotel’s fitness club when the blast occurred, rushed to the wreckage and helped rescue survivors. He lifted at least two people who were alive from the bus, which he said was carrying about 15 people. The survivors could still speak but were severely injured, he said.

The businessman, whose T-shirt and shorts were smeared with blood, asked not to be identified. He feared retaliation for helping victims of an apparent terrorist strike.

The bus was making its regular trip from the hotel to the port, a journey it made each morning after picking up European workers, said Khan, the police officer.

The bombing is another embarrassment to Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, an army general who calls the port city home and has promised to eradicate terrorism in the country.

It is also likely to be a blow to the country’s economy. Karachi is a busy commercial center, and even with its long reputation for violence, the foreign businesspeople have kept coming because foreigners are rarely targeted.

Four American workers with the Union Texas Petroleum company and their Pakistani driver were slain by two gunmen in 1997 as they drove from the Sheraton hotel to their office in Karachi’s port.

In that attack, gunmen in a car blocked the oil company’s station wagon and fired into it. A Pakistani anti-terrorism court convicted two men in the case and sentenced them to death. The men are appealing their convictions.

Baker, still stunned by today’s blast, wasn’t sure what to do next.

“We were obviously concerned about coming here to start with, but we were guaranteed--as much as you can be guaranteed--that everything was fine. And it didn’t look like much trouble to me,” said Baker, who works in the textile industry.

Less than half an hour after the attack, as bodies were being pulled out of the destroyed bus, she still hadn’t decided whether to leave Karachi.

“Your first reaction is always, ‘I just want to go home,’” she said. “But we’ll have a strong coffee and think about it.”