A bomb blast hit a hotel in an industrial town of Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan on Tuesday, killing several and injured more, local TV channels reported.

The bomb ripped through a two-storied hotel at Bagar Chowk of the Hub town Tuesday afternoon, about 700 km southeast of Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, when dozens of people were inside the hotel, the GEO Television reported, quoting a police officer who did not confirm the number of deaths.

The local Aaj TV reported that five people were killed and another 17 injured.

Reports said that their correspondents saw ambulances taking mutilated bodies and injured people to hospital.

The blast also caused damage to the hotel building, according to the reports.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sparsely populated Baluchistan has been wracked by shootings, small-scale bombings and rocket attacks in recent years, most of which have been blamed on tribesmen demanding increased royalties for gas extracted from the province.

The blast came as violence has gripped the whole province of Baluchistan after the death of a Baluch tribal leader Nawab Akbar Bugti in a military operation on Saturday.

Baluchistan, being Pakistan's biggest province and rich in mineral resources, is a major supplier of natural gas to the country.

(Xinhua News Agency August 30, 2006)