ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) — More than 1,300 pounds of explosives were packed into a construction truck that detonated outside an Islamabad hotel, killing 57 people, including two Americans and a diplomat, officials said Sunday.
A truck burns at the gate to the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad before a larger, deadly explosion Saturday.
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Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said the Saturday attack at the Marriott Hotel "is the biggest attack, volume-wise" in Pakistan in seven years.
Two American military personnel who worked for the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad were among those killed, the U.S. military said. A Lithuanian and the Czech Republic’s ambassador to Pakistan, Ivo Zdarek, also were among the fatalities, police superintendent Sheikh Zubair said.
The suicide truck blast injured 266 people, including 11 foreigners, according to Malik.
Watch guards scatter after an explosion »
British Airways temporarily suspended its flights to Islamabad as a result of the security situation, according to an airline spokeswoman who did not want to be named. A Sunday night flight has been canceled, and the airline is reviewing its operations for later in the week.
British Airways operates at least three flights a week to the Pakistani capital out of London’s Heathrow Airport.
At a news conference in Islamabad on Sunday, Pakistani authorities released security video of the blast, showing a small explosion inside the truck before the larger, deadly explosion.
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In the video, a large truck crashes into the security gate, sending one security officer scurrying for safety. Then, as security guards approach the truck, the top of the vehicle explodes and the security guards flee.
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