Heavily-armed Islamist militants wearing suicide vests stormed a Pakistani police academy, killing at least 60 people and wounding dozens more, officials said Tuesday, in one of the deadliest extremist attacks this year.
Three gunmen from a Pakistani Taliban-linked group burst into the sprawling academy, targeting sleeping quarters that are home to some 700 recruits, sending terrified young men fleeing.
"I saw three men in camouflage whose faces were hidden carrying Kalashnikovs," one cadet told reporters. "They started firing and entered the dormitory but I managed to escape over a wall."
The attack on the Balochistan Police College, around 20 kilometers east of provincial capital Quetta, began at around 11:10 pm local time Monday, with gunfire continuing to ring out at the site for several hours.
Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of Balochistan province, told reporters there had been three attackers.
"They first targeted the watch tower sentry, and after exchanging fire, killed him and were able to enter the academy grounds," he said.
A doctor at Quetta's government hospital told AFP that as of early Tuesday, 60 people had died in the attack, with scores more injured.
Another hospital official and a security official both confirmed the death toll of 60, making the attack the third deadliest in Pakistan this year.
Officials said that another 118 people had been wounded.
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