UPDATE: Militants attack Karachi airport; 23 killed in clashes (Video)
Posted by Unknown on Sunday, June 8, 2014 | 0 comments
Twenty-three persons are reported to have died after heavily armed gunmen attacked Pakistan’s international airport, in Karachi.
According to foreign media, the siege is reported to be over.
Clashes at Pakistan’s largest and busiest airport left more than 20 people dead after militants armed with grenades stormed into a cargo area Sunday.
Violence erupted at Jinnah International Airport in Karachi around 11:30 p.m. Sunday and raged on for more than five hours as security forces fought off attackers, leaving some passengers trapped inside the airport.
Officials at Jinnah Hospital in Karachi said the dead included eight members of airport security forces, two Pakistan International Airlines employees and one ranger.
Ten militants were also killed in the clashes, said Niaz Abbasi, home secretary of Sindh province. The attack ended Monday morning, and authorities were securing the area, Abbasi said.
It was not immediately clear who the militants were or why they staged the assault.
Clashes broke out after attackers armed with grenades stormed the airport through three entrances, said Ahmad Chinoy, director-general of the citizen’s police liaison committee.
One militant blew himself up in front of an armored car, leaving some people inside the vehicle critically injured, Chinoy said.
A plume of smoke rose over the airport as fires raged in at least two locations. Dozens of ambulances were lined up as police and military troops swarmed the area.
A cargo plane was damaged and set ablaze in the fighting, Chinoy said. The airport’s cargo area is about a kilometer (0.62 miles) away from the area where commercial planes take off.
Foreign Media
