KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Security guards searched four attackers — twice — before allowing them to enter an Afghan hotel where the young men proceeded to the restaurant and killed nine diners, including four foreigners and an AFP journalist, his wife and two children, according to chilling closed-circuit video broadcast Saturday by a local TV station.

The question of how the gunmen penetrated the tight security of the Serena hotel — considered one of the safest spots in the Afghan capital — with pistols and ammunition is one of the biggest mysteries surrounding Thursday’s attack. Afghan authorities have said the attackers hid the weaponry in the soles of their shoes, wrapped in plastic. Interior Ministry spokesman Seddiq Seddiqi displayed the tiny pistols, which fit in the palm of a hand, ammunition and large shoes at a press conference on Friday.