QUETTA, Pakistan (AFP) — A group of militants killed at least 10 people at a copper and gold mining project in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province, officials said on Thursday, the latest violence in a region facing an armed separatist movement.

About 40 militants on motorcycles and other vehicles stormed the mining project site of Pakistani company National Resources Private Limited in the Darigwan area of Chagai district on Wednesday.

“The attack left 10 people dead, including seven workers and three security personnel,” a local administration official told Agence France-Presse on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

“There are unconfirmed reports that militants also took some employees hostage,” he added.

A local police official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the details of the attack to Agence France-Presse.

The company acknowledged the attack late Wednesday, saying security forces responded “promptly and have secured the area.”

No group claimed responsibility, but local ethnic separatist groups have intensified their attacks in the region in recent years, including on mining projects.

Pakistan’s poorest province and largest by landmass, Balochistan lags behind the rest of the country in almost every index, including education, employment and economic development.

Baloch separatists accuse Pakistan’s government of exploiting the province’s natural gas and abundant mineral resources without benefiting the local population.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the province’s most active armed separatist group, in February launched a string of coordinated attacks across the region that killed more than 190 people.

Separatists have in the past killed workers based on their ethnicity, targeting ethnic Punjabis and Sindhis and accusing them of being outsiders to the province.

In its statement, NRL said that 90 percent of its workforce consisted of local workers.