Karachi:
At least 20 people were injured today after unidentified miscreants lobbed hand grenades at a hotel in this southern port city, police said.
At least four men came to the hotel on the busy Napier road and threw grenades causing explosions and damage to the building, leaving around 20 people injured who were rushed to different hospitals for treatment, they said.
"The condition of three of the injured is precarious," a police official said.
The explosion in the hotel also damaged a gas pipeline and panic spread in the area when gas and smoke started leaking out profusely.
"The incident took place around midnight at the hotel on Thakkar road which is frequented by people till late in the night. Police and rangers personnel reached the spot and were cordoning off the affected area," he said.
According to some media reports, the hotel also doubles as a gambling den.
In the last two months, there have been two attacks on illegal gambling dens in the old areas of the city with the last one occurring on May 7 when two men lobbed grenades in Chakiwari area killing three people and injuring 21.
Earlier in April in another attack on a Rummy club in the Ghas Mandi area of Lyari, 18 people were killed and 35 injured.
"We suspect these attacks to be part of an ongoing gang warfare in the old areas," the police official said.