Updated 10:15  Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Two UN employees were killed Tuesday night 9 June in a bomb blast that killed 16 and demolished the five-star Hotel Pearl Continental in Peshawar, capital of Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) in Pakistan. One, a UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) employee from Serbia, was on mission in Peshawar. Aleksandar Vorkapic, an information technology specialist in the UNHCR office in Belgrade was on his first emergency mission for the organization, the UNHCR office in Geneva announced Wednesday morning. He leaves a wife and three children.

The other death, a woman who is a Philippines citizen, was working for the World Food Programme, a spokesperson at the UNHCR office in Peshawar has told GenevaLunch. Several other UNHCR employees who were staying at the Pearl Continental Hotel have been evacuated to Islamabad, the spokesperson says. The Geneva office of UNHCR cites news reports as saying a Unicef staff person has died.

More than 57 people were wounded by the blast, reports the Nation. No one has claimed responsibility, but several similar attacks in the region have been ascribed to Taliban militants whom the Pakistani army has been fighting in the Swat valley.

The hotel was attacked by three men who drove  up to the front of the building in a truck. They exchanged gunfire with security guards and then detonated a bomb inside the compound, which is on the heavily guarded Kyber road. The explosives caused massive damage to the luxury hotel. . The hotel is situated in a very heavily guarded zone that includes various government offices, including police headquarters and the NWFP assembly building.

Related: BBC, The Nation

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