Commandos partially clear besieged Lahore police academy

[shab]

Lahore, March 30 (DPA) Tactical units of the Pakistani security forces have cleared portions of a police academy where several assailants were holed up after killing at least 22 recruits and wounding dozens more in an early morning attack, news reports said Monday.

The armed group holed up in the training school on the outskirts of the eastern city of Lahore were believed to have taken up to 150 policemen hostage.

Commandos of the police and the army cleared out rooms on the ground floor and the first storey of the sprawling building amid heavy gunfire.

At least four helicopters were seen hovering over the besieged complex, with sharpshooters taking aim at the suspected positions of the attackers.

No group has taken responsibility for the deadly raid, but Pakistan's top security official has blamed Al Qaeda and Taliban militants operating in the tribal region near the Afghan border.

Some suspected militants were believed to have fled during the initial moments of the encounter. A policeman told reporters that the terrorists fired at him before they escaped in a vehicle.