Gunmen Remain at Large After Pakistan Attack on Sri Lankan Cricket Team

Fourteen masked and heavily armed gunmen who today launched an audacious commando-style attack on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, killing five policemen and injuring seven players and officials, remain at large.

In scenes similar to the terror attacks on Mumbai in November, the gunmen opened fire with AK47s, grenades and a rocket launcher, spraying the Sri Lankan team bus with bullets as it drove to the 60,000-seater Gaddafi stadium in Lahore.

Television footage showed glimpses of the assailants running through the streets with machine guns in their hands, firing towards police lines.

Police sources told the Associated Press that all the gunmen, who had rucksacks on their backs, had escaped.

Officers cordoned off the area, vowing to kill or capture the terrorists. Two of the cricketers were admitted to hospital. Thilan Samaraweera suffered a thigh injury and Tharanga Paranavithana sustained a chest wound.

Paul Farbrace, the team's British assistant coach, was slightly hurt, suffering a shrapnel wound to his right arm. The reserve umpire, Ahsan Raza, a Pakistani, was critically hurt.

A Sri Lankan foreign ministry official said three other players suffered slight injuries and the head coach, Trevor Bayliss, an Australian, sustained minor wounds.

Kumar Sangakkara, the Sri Lankan vice-captain, said he and his team-mates were now out of danger.

"There are a few injuries, but everyone is safe," he said. "We are shocked, but apart from that everyone is ok.

The attack happened in Gulberg, an upmarket area of Lahore, at around 9am (4am GMT).

The gunmen approached from four sides, some arriving in rickshaws and at least one car.

The driver of the team bus said the militants fired a rocket at the vehicle but missed. They also threw a grenade under the bus, but it failed to explode.

He said the vehicle was fired on from several directions. Bullet holes could be seen around it.

The vehicle carrying umpires Simon Taufel and Steve Davis and match official Chris Broad, the father of the England bowler Stuart, was also attacked.

A rocket launcher and grenades were recovered from the scene..

Habibur Rehman, the leading policeman in the Lahore city force,said the shootout with police lasted for about half an hour, but other reports indicated that it went on for 15 minutes.

"Because the police were protecting them [the Sri Lanka team], we were the main victims," Rehman said. "They [the gunmen] looked like trained people. The security provided was good."

The Sri Lankan team, which had been due to play a Test match against Pakistan in Lahore, is to be evacuated immediately. A military army helicopter landed in the middle of the Gaddafi stadium pitch to take the players to Lahore airport.

The Pakistani cricket team, which was traveling about 15 minutes behind the Sri Lankans, was not caught up in the onslaught.

Salman Taseer, the governor of Punjab, said: "This was a planned terrorist attack. They had heavy weapons..

"These were the same methods and the same sort of people as hit Mumbai."

The former England all-rounder Dominic Cork, who was in the stadium to do commentary work for Pakistan TV, told Sky Sports News: "The Sri Lankan players are quite shocked. They all fell to the floor of the team bus when the attack happened.

"Some of them have wounds, but I think most of them are superficial wounds. I have spoken to Sangakkarra ... he has a shrapnel wound in his right shoulder.

"The team are sitting in the changing room watching local TV. They are waiting for helicopters to arrive to take them to a local army base and wait for a connecting flight to Abu Dhabi."

Cork also spoke to former England opener Broad. "He said it was the most frightening experience of his life," he said.

"Their driver was shot and they had to ask a policeman to drive them to the stadium."

Around 170 people died in Mumbai in November, when militants staged a three-day gun attack on the city. Earlier this year, there was an armed attack on government buildings in the middle of Kabul.

Today's attack in Lahore makes it appear that terrorists may have adopted new tactics, preferring guns to suicide bombings.

Brigadier Udaya Nanayakkara, a military spokesman, said authorities did not believe the attack had been carried out by separatist Tamil Tiger rebels, who have fought a 25-year civil war against the Sri Lankan government.

Cricket teams had stopped visiting Pakistan because of the country's deteriorating security situation, with an international tournament cancelled last year.

Australia and India had refused to go on pre-planned tours, and it was with great difficulty that the Pakistani cricket authorities managed to persuade Sri Lanka to tour the country.

Sanath Jayasuriya, a Sri Lankan cricketer who was not part of the touring team, said that, even in conflict-hit Sri Lanka, cricketers never became the target.

"We are shocked," he said. "We have never gone through this kind of thing before ... the good news is that they [the team] are all safe."

The second Test between Sri Lanka and Pakistan has been called off.

Raja Riaz, a senior member of the ruling Pakistan People's party, said: "This [attack] is against Pakistan, to ruin our image and get us labeled a terrorist state.

"But we are ready to fight terrorism."

Today's developments will probably mean the end of international cricket in Pakistan for months, if not years.

The Sri Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, condemned the attack on his country's cricket team and called for the players to come home immediately.

He ordered his foreign minister to travel to Pakistan to help with the team's evacuation and ensure they were safe.

Haroon Lorgat, the International Cricket Council chief executive, said the attack was a "source of great sadness" and "upsetting for the wider cricket family".

Javed Miandad, the former Pakistan captain, denounced the "carnage and terror".

"What is worse is that all the fears expressed by foreign teams about coming to Pakistan have been proved correct," he added. "Pakistan cricket will take a long time to recover now."