PTI

Lahore, Mar 30: Heavily armed terrorists gunned down at least 22 policemen, including eight officers, and injured 90 others as they stormed into police Pakistani special commandos take cover at the site of terrorist attack near Lahore.

training centre near here, barely a month after the brazen attack on Sri Lankan cricketers in this city.

Lobbing grenades and opening indiscriminate fire, the terrorists, said to number between 10 and 16, struck the academy as trainees prepared for the morning drill, killing guards at the gate and later holed up inside with hostages.

Authorities clamped curfew, called in the Army and paramilitary rangers who along with police laid a siege to the sprawling complex where an estimated 800 unarmed policemen were present.

Helicopters and armoured carriers were deployed by the security forces to monitor the situation inside, which authorities described as a hostage crisis.

Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik said the suspicion in the attack was on Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e Mohammad as intermittent firing and sounds of explosions continued to emanate from the centre.

While Malik said the attack bore resemblance to the Mumbai terror strikes, former Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub said it "is similar to the one on the Sri Lankan team".

"It is the same type of people and same style of operation," he said.