ISLAMABAD (Pakistan) - A MASSIVE truck bomb devastated the heavily guarded Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital on Saturday, engulfing the building in flames, and killing at least 40 people and wounding many more - a toll expected to rise significantly.

Senior Police Official Asghar Raza Gardaizi says he fears 'there are dozens more dead inside'. He said that the Saturday blast, which reverberated throughout Islamabad, was caused by more than 1,000 kilogrammes of explosives.

The Marriott in Islamabad is a favorite place for foreigners to stay and socialize, despite repeated militant attacks. A security guard at the scene, Mohammad Nasir and several witnesses said a large truck had driven toward the gate before exploding.

The blast left a vast crater some 30 feet (10 metres) deep in front of the main building, where flames poured from the windows and rescuers ferried a stream of bloodied bodies from the gutted building.

An Associated Press reporter counted at least nine bodies scattered at the scene. Scores of people, including foreigners, were running out - some of them stained with blood.

Mr Ahmad Latif, a senior police official, said it was one of the biggest terrorist strikes in Pakistan history.

Ambulances rushed to the area, smoke hovered and the carcasses of vehicles were thrown about. Windows in buildings hundreds of meters away were shattered.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

But Pakistan, a US ally in the war on terror, has faced a wave of militant violence in recent weeks following army-led offensives against insurgents in its border regions, though the capital has avoided most of the bloodshed.

At a hospital where many of the casualties were taken, official Raja Ejaz said at least two people had died and 25 were wounded.

Mohammad Sultan, a hotel employee, said he was in the lobby when something exploded, he fell down and everything temporarily went dark.

'I don't understand what it was, but it was like the world is finished,' he said.

In January 2007, a security guard blocked a suicide bomber who triggered a blast just outside the Marriott, killing the guard and wounding seven other people. -- AP