KABUL, JAN 20 (DNA)  – Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul has been attacked, Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry spokesman said on Saturday.

Reports say the insurgents entered the building before police cordoned off the area.

Heavy gunfire is taking place at Kabul’s Intercontinental Hotel.

The incident is taking place just five days after two rockets hit Kabul’s diplomatic area.

Four gunmen attacked Kabul’s luxury Intercontinental Hotel on Saturday and started shooting at guests, an Afghan official said, in the latest violence to strike the Afghan capital.

“Four attackers are inside the building,” an official at the Afghan spy agency told.

They are “shooting at guests”, he said.

The fourth floor of the hotel is on fire, the official from the National Directorate of Security added.

Occupants inside the hotel are hiding on the second floor, a security source said.

A guest hiding in his room in the hotel told he could hear gunfire.

“I don’t know if the attackers are inside the hotel but I can hear gunfire from somewhere near the first floor,” he said without giving his name.

“We are hiding in our rooms. I beg the security forces to rescue us as soon as possible before they reach and kill us.”

The Intercontinental was last targeted in June 2011 when a suicide attack killed 21 people, including 10 civilians.