Three gunmen have stormed a five-star hotel in the restive Pakistani province of Balochistan, killing at least one person, officials say.
The attack targeted the Pearl Continental Hotel in the strategic port city of Gwadar, the centrepiece of a multi-billion-dollar Chinese project.
Most guests have been evacuated.
The separatist group Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) said it had carried out the attack to target Chinese and other foreign investors.
Militants in Balochistan oppose Chinese investment, saying it is of little benefit to local people.
What do we know about the attack?
The men stormed the hotel, popular with top government officials and foreign visitors, at around 16:50 local time (11:50 GMT), killing one security guard who tried to stop them at the entrance.
Reports say the security forces are still fighting a gun battle with the militants. It is unclear how many people were in the building but officials say the majority of guests were evacuated.
The hotel sits on a hilltop overlooking the Gwadar port on the Arabian Sea, which is being developed by China as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the two countries.
The attack comes just weeks after gunmen killed 14 people, including 11 military personnel, in the region.
A worrying breach of security
Gwadar is a city with a heavy military presence. It is viewed by both Chinese and Pakistani officials as the lynchpin of the CPEC, aiming to connect western China with the Arabian Sea.
When I visited the port city in late 2017 with other international journalists, we travelled in convoys guarded by armed escorts, and stayed in the same hotel that was targeted.
This attack will therefore be seen as a worrying breach of security, and it is not the first time Chinese interests have been targeted by this militant group. Last year the BLA carried out an attack on the Chinese consulate in Karachi.
After that attack, both Pakistani and Chinese officials stressed that violence would not derail their close co-operation. But militant activity in Balochistan remains one of the major concerns about the viability of the CPEC project.
What is the situation in Balochistan?
Home to a long-running insurgency, Balochistan is Pakistan’s poorest and least developed province.
It shares a large, porous border with Afghanistan and Iran.
Its economy is dominated by natural resources, particularly natural gas, and is being transformed by major Chinese infrastructure projects on the CPEC, part of the ambitious Belt and Road initiative.
Several militant groups operate in the region, including the Pakistani Taliban, the BLA and the Sunni Muslim extremist group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
