Firing in Lahore, Sri Lanka cricket team members injured

3 Mar 2009, AFP
LAHORE, Pakistan: Masked gunmen launched a brazen attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in the Pakistani city of Lahore on Tuesday, killing at Pakistani policemen gather beside the wreckage of a police van after masked gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore.least eight people and wounding seven cricketers, police said.

Gunmen attacked the team's convoy near the Gaddafi stadium with rockets, hand grenades and automatic weapons, triggering a 25-minute gunbattle with security forces, said Lahore police chief Habib-ur Rehman.

"They appeared to be well-trained terrorists," said Rehman, who gave no details about the fate of the estimated 12 gunmen.

Witnesses said the upmarket district Lahore's Liberty Square, home to many designer boutiques, was turned into a battlefield as gunmen hidden behind trees opened fire.

"There was a blast first, then we heard firing. A rocket launcher was also fired at the bus which narrowly missed," a Sri Lankan player said on condition of anonymity.

Australian freelance cameraman Tony Bennett said people inside the stadium heard explosions followed by bursts of machine gun fire.

"Next thing we knew, the Sri Lankan team bus rolls up being sprayed by bullets. Players were getting carried into the dressing room."

Sri Lanka said it would rush its foreign minister to Pakistan after the shooting, which Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapakse condemned as a "cowardly terrorist attack" against the country's "ambassadors of goodwill."

Security experts defused two car bombs and recovered a stash of weapons including grenades, three kilograms (6.6 pounds) of explosives, a pistol and a detonating cable after the ambush.

A police official said that two civilians and six police officers who were guarding the players were killed in the attack, which happened as the team was heading for the third day's play in the second Test against Pakistan.

Television footage showed several gunmen creeping through trees, crouching to aim their weapons and then running onto the next target.

Broken glass littered the road next to a gun cartridge and an empty rocket-propelled grenade launcher. A police motorbike was shown crashed sideways near to the scene of the attack.

Bullet holes ripped through the windscreen of another vehicle and a white car was shown smashed headlong as nervous security officers guarded the site.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but fears of attacks by terrorists linked to al-Qaida have caused many cricket teams to cancel tours to Pakistan in recent years.

Pakistani officials said the attack bore all the hallmarks of the November 2008 assault on Mumbai which was blamed on Pakistan-based terror groups.

India's immediate reaction was to say Pakistan needed to dismantle its "infrastructure of terrorism."

Sri Lankan officials said eight members of the touring party -- seven players and a coach -- were wounded and that the team was immediately ending its tour of Pakistan.

Assistant coach Paul Farbrace, a Briton, and star batsman Thilan Samaraweera were kept in hospital although their injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, said Sri Lanka's Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge.

Captain Mahela Jayawardene, vice captain Kumar Sangakkara, Tharanga Paranavithana, Thilina Thushara and Ajantha Mendis suffered only minor injuries, he said.

Samaraweera is one of Sri Lanka's leading players and earlier this week became only the seventh batsmen in Test cricket to notch a double hundred in consecutive matches.

The attack sent shockwaves through the world of cricket and raised doubts about the 2011 World Cup which is due to take place in Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

"What has happened is very shocking indeed," said N Srinivasan, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

"We have been saying that there was a lack of security and safety in Pakistan. But this is not the time to give statements on that. At the moment our concerns are only for the Sri Lankan players," he said.

The attack cast yet another cloud over cricket in Pakistan.

Australia earlier this month forced Pakistan to change the venue of a one-day series to the neutral venues of Dubai and Abu Dhabi when the two sides meet in April-May this over security fears.

India also refused to send its team across the border amid heightened tensions in the wake of the Mumbai attacks and a spate of bombings in Pakistan over the past year.

Last month, security concerns raised by other teams forced the ICC to move the 2009 Champions Trophy out of Pakistan.