One dead after militant gunmen storm five-star hotel in Pakistan in 'attack on multi-billion-dollar Chinese investment'

At least three armed militants have stormed a luxury hotel in Pakistan and exchanged fire with government forces.

Local media said the fighters stormed the Pearl Continental hotel in Gwadar just before 5pm local time on Saturday. Firing was still ongoing at 8pm, the assistant superintendent of police in the city said. Security personnel cordoned off the area around the hotel.

A spokesman for Pakistan’s military said a hotel security guard had been killed.

The attack was claimed on Twitter by members of the Majeed Brigade of the Balochistan Liberation Organisation, a separatist group active in Pakistan and Afghanistan. “Our fighters have carried out this attack on Chinese and other foreign investors,” the group said.

The same group claimed responsibility for an attack on the Chinese embassy in Karachi in November last year and another assault on Chinese engineers in the Baloch district of Chagai.