Gunmen kill 59 in attack on police academy in Pakistan

At least 59 people were killed and more than 100 wounded when gunmen wearing suicide vests stormed a Pakistani police training academy in the south-western city of Quetta, government officials said on Tuesday.

The Guardian cited the Pakistani government, saying that three gunmen attacked the police college on the outskirts of the capital of Balochistan province at about 11:20pm local time on Monday, killing two guards on the front gate and then making straight for the hostel where 700 cadets were sleeping.

Reuters news agency reported that some cadets were taken hostage during the attack, which lasted five hours. Most of the dead were police cadets, it said.

Officials said most of the deaths were caused by two suicide blasts, with the third attacker shot dead before he could blow himself up. Many of the cadets sustained injuries after jumping out of windows to escape.

"Two attackers blew up themselves while a third one was shot in the head by security men," Mir Sarfaraz Bugti, home minister of Baluchistan province, said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but one of the top military commanders in Baluchistan, General Sher Afgun, reportedly told media that calls intercepted between the attackers and their handlers suggested they were from the sectarian militant group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.

The group has a history of carrying out sectarian attacks in Baluchistan, particularly against the minority Hazara Shias.