Pakistani security forces took control of a police academy in Lahore today after militants rampaged through the centre's parade ground, killing up to 20 people before holing up inside for hours.
"The operation is over. Four terrorists were killed and three arrested," Interior Ministry Secretary Kamal Shah saod. He said 89 policemen were wounded but the number killed was still being determined.
The latest attack will heighten fears about mounting insecurity in nuclear-armed Pakistan. The assault came less than a month after gunmen attacked Sri Lanka's cricket team in Lahore, killing six police guards and a bus driver.
Islamist militants have launched a campaign of violence to destabilise the Muslim nation of 170 million people, and the one-year-old civilian government's ability to meet the challenge.
US President Barack Obama made support for President Asif Ali Zardari's government a centrepiece of a review of policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan that was announced on Friday, and which made annihilation of al Qaeda the United States' principle objective.
Television news channels showed jubilant police shouting praise to God and firing in the air, soon after an intense burst of firing inside the academy.
Salman Taseer, governor of Punjab province, said authorities had reports of four people confirmed killed, although television news channels put the number of dead at 20, including cadets.
"It was like doomsday; it was every man to himself. Every boy was trying to race to safety," one young cadet with bandaged hands told reporters at a hospital.
One wounded policeman described how the attackers struck while police recruits were going through their regular morning drill on the parade ground in the eastern city.
"A grenade hit the platoon next to ours ... then there was continuous firing for about 20 minutes," the policeman told reporters gathered round his hospital bed.
"A man in light-coloured clothes - I think they were white - stood in front of us, firing at us. They wanted to do as much damage as possible."
An estimated eight to 10 militants attacked the recruits as they performed a regular drill on the parade ground at around 7:30 a.m (0230 GMT), and then went on to occupy the academy's main building.
Just before 4 p.m., commandos launched an operation to retake the building, according to Major-General Shafqaat Ali, who described it as a joint operation by the army, paramilitary rangers and a crack police squad.
"Our forces stormed the top floor where they were holding positions," Major-General Ali said.
"The operation is over the building is in our control." The siege had lasted nearly eight hours, with security forces firing from rooftops of nearby buildings, while gunmen returned fire and threw grenades.
Before the siege ended, Punjab police chief Khawaja Khalid Farooq said one of the suspected attackers had been caught. Footage showed police kicking a bearded man on the ground before leading him through a throng of journalists.
Reports said the suspect was caught with a grenade in his possession and had an Afghan passport, though a cadet who fled the carnage said he heard the attackers speaking a dialect common to southern Punjab. Lahore is the capital of Punjab province.
Television channels said several hundred trainees were at the centre when the attackers struck. Taseer said some wore masks.
One witness said the gunmen attacked in groups of three or four from all sides, and lobbed grenades before opening sweeping fire on cadets assembled on the parade ground.
Another wounded policeman recounted how he escaped when the gunmen burst into a room and began firing indiscriminately.
"I jumped from the second floor," he said. "There were dead bodies all over the place." Militant violence has surged in Pakistan since mid-2007, with attacks on security forces and government and Western targets.
While there have been attacks in all Pakistan's big cities, most violence has been in the northwest, near the Afghan border.
Reuters