In the Pakistani metropolis of Karachi, terrorists are fighting their way into a police barracks with a rocket and storming a building. They take hostages, there is an explosion on the roof, and the fighting goes on for hours. Several people die on both sides.
In the Pakistani metropolis of Karachi, a police barracks was attacked and subsequently became the scene of a skirmish that lasted at least hours. According to the authorities and eyewitnesses, heavily armed attackers broke into the heavily guarded area on Friday evening (local time), on which dozens of administrative and residential buildings are located. Hundreds of police officers live there with their families. The firefight lasted for hours after it began.
Several officers were temporarily taken hostage, a police officer said. Explosions and gunfire could be heard from the building. The broadcaster CNN reports at least two dead, a police officer and a janitor. The Pakistani TV station Samaa also reports online that two terrorists have died. The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, which Samaa has described as a "twilight attack."
"They used a rocket at the gate," Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said. The attackers were armed with grenades, among other things. Reinforcement units from the police and paramilitaries had surrounded the site and were now trying to get onto the site "to render the terrorists harmless".
Video recordings on social networks are said to show an explosion on the roof of the police building, several Pakistani journalists speak of a suicide bomber.
Police in Pakistan have been repeatedly targeted by militant groups such as the Pakistani Taliban and various separatist groups in the western province of Balochistan. At the end of January, more than 80 officers were killed in a suicide bombing at a mosque at a police headquarters in Peshawar.
