KARACHI: Some heavily-armed militants on Saturday stormed a five-star hotel in Pakistan's port city of Gwadar in the restive Balochistan province, police said.

A shootout was underway at the Pearl Continental Hotel after three to four armed militants entered into the facility, Dawn news quoted Gwadar Station House Officer Aslam Bangulzai as saying.

There was no immediate reports of casualties.

All foreign and local guests staying at the hotel have been safely evacuated, Express Tribune quoted Balochistan Information Minister Zahoor Buledi as saying.

Navy and army soldiers are carrying out the operation, sources said.

"At around 4:50 pm (local time) we got reports that there are three to four armed men in PC Hotel," the officer said.

Frontier Corps personnel have cordoned off the hotel, DawnNewsTV reported citing police sources.

The hotel, frequented by business and leisure travellers, is located on the Koh-e-Batil hill, south of West Bay on Fish Harbour road in Gwadar.

On April 18, unidentified gunmen donning uniforms of paramilitary soldiers massacred at least 14 passengers, including Pakistan Navy personnel, after forcing them to disembark from buses on a highway in Balochistan.

Balochistan, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, is Pakistan's largest and poorest province, rife with ethnic, sectarian and separatist insurgencies.

China is investing heavily in Balochistan under the USD 50 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

The CPEC, launched in 2015, is a planned network of roads, railways and energy projects linking China's resource-rich Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region with Pakistan's strategic Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea. (PTI)

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