(NSI News Source Info) LAHORE, Pakistan — March 30, 2009: Gunmen firing indiscriminately and throwing hand grenades stormed a police training center in Lahore Monday morning, killing nine people and injuring up to 90 , according to police and media reports. Government troops outside the police training school in Lahore.
About 10 to 14 gunmen were holding several hundred cadets hostage as police and the attackers exchanged fire inside the center. Armored police vehicles carrying police and rangers drove into gates of the center after the attackers took control and explosions and bursts of heavy gunfire could be heard sporadically.
Scores of police vehicles and ambulances crowded around the high walls of the academy as police rushed to the compound.
The attackers, wearing police uniforms, entered the Manawan police training center on the outskirts of Lahore, about eight miles from the Indian border, at about 8 a.m. as the police cadets were conducting their morning parade, police said. They threw hand grenades at the parade ground and started firing, they said.
Former police officials told television reporters that security around the school was light, allowing the gunmen to breach the walls easily.
The attackers were reportedly firing from the roof of the school and a police helicopter was hovering overhead. Police sharpshooters positioned at nearby buildings were firing into the center.
Reached by telephone, the commander of the center, Chaudhry Tanwir, said he was heading the operation to subdue the attackers.
Wounded cadets were carried out of the center on stretchers and some who had escaped by jumping over walls were shown weeping in television footage. The school was believed to have 850 cadets under training.
Rizwan Naseer, a doctor in charge of emergency operations, said at least 48 people were being treated at hospitals. Local media cited 90 wounded and said there could be many more casualties.
The assault appeared to have been well-planned, an intelligence expert said. “This took many weeks to plan, someone should have smelled this was going to happen,” said Masood Sharif, the former chief of intelligence in Lahore.
The attack appeared similar to the assault earlier this month by a dozen gunmen on the Sri Lankan cricket team as it traveled to a stadium in central Lahore. Six police officers and a driver died in that incident.
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