Hotel blast kills at least 15 in Pakistan's Peshawar

ISLAMABAD, May 15 (Reuters) An explosion killed at least 15 people at a hotel in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar today, police said.

Ambulance workers said they expected the death toll to rise.

A Reuters photographer saw seven lifeless bodies strewn on the floor of a hotel reception near a well known mosque in the heart of the city.

''The blast occurred inside, near the counter of the Hotel Marhaba,'' senior police officer Mohammad Javed told Reuters.

The hotel was frequented by Afghans visiting the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

''We have reports of 15 dead and several wounded,'' an official at the police central control room said.

One of the many Afghan refugees living in Peshawar described the impact. ''I was in the kitchen when I heard an explosion and a wall of our restaurant fell on my feet,'' said Muslim Khan, an Afghan refugee.

Peshawar has suffered an overspill of violence from tribal regions on the border with Afghanistan. The Pakistan military has been fighting al Qaeda militants there, while seeking to contain pro-Taliban tribesmen.

There was a rash of bomb blasts in the city in late 2006 and earlier this year, as militants angry with President Pervez Musharraf's alliance with the United States sought to destablise the government by creating insecurity.

REUTERS RJ RK1500