Three engineers of the China Harbour Engineering Company in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city, were killed yesterday by a powerful car bomb explosion in Gawadar, a port town about 500 kilometres west of the city.

The death of the three Chinese nationals has stunned the engineers' co-workers.

"We feel bad, but we have got to pull ourselves together," said Tang, an official with the office who blurted out only his surname before leaving to meet four seriously wounded survivors at the airport.

The four will receive medical treatment in Karachi, whose facilities are superior to Gawadar's.

The Chinese engineers came from a port planning institute of the Ministry of Communications in North China's Tianjin, itself a major port city.

They were travelling with a group of 14 on a bus proceeding to Gawadar, which is being expanded with Chinese help, when a small car loaded with explosives blew up near the port about 9:10 am.

Seven who were less seriously injured by the blast, including a Pakistani driver and a Pakistani security guard, are recovering in Gawadar.

Police at Gawadar said they suspected a remote-controlled device was used to detonate the Suzuki Alto car, but it was not immediately clear who was behind the attack.

"It appears that it was a remote-controlled device, because the explosion occurred when the bus came close to the car," said Shoaib Suddle, Baluchistan province's top police official.

Police in Gawadar have not found any human remains inside the white Suzuki car, but the strength of the blast wrecked the car, leaving only a skeletal structure, and so has made it hard to determine whether it was occupied.

The bus was also heavily damaged, with windows shattered and metal twisted.

The bombing came five days ahead of an international conference being organized by Pakistan to attract investment to the southwestern province of Baluchistan province - particularly for Gawadar, where a major port is being developed.

Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali is the main speaker at the conference on Saturday in Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan.

Gawadar is the third sea port in Pakistan and provides trade route access to China and landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asian countries.

Pakistan has been hit by a wave of attacks in recent years, many of them linked to hardline Islamic militant groups opposed to Pakistan's support for the United States-led war on terror.

(China Daily 05/04/2004 page1)