Karachi siege over

Armed police in Pakistan have recaptured a building which was being held by gunmen.

Two of the gunmen were killed and at least five others captured in a three-hour battle in Karachi.

One child was killed in the cross fire and four police officers were wounded.

Police chief Kamal Shah said it was unclear whether the gunmen were criminals or foreign terrorists possibly affiliated with the al-Qaida network.

But an intelligence official said one of the captured men spoke Arabic rather than the Pakistani language Urdu. He added police raided the building after receiving a tip that "suspicious people were living there."

Shah said two of the gunmen were arrested inside the third-floor apartment. Others fled to the roof of the four-story building, where they battled police for three hours before they were killed or captured.

The gunmen were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles, submachine guns and grenades.

An intelligence official said one of the gunmen scrawled the words "There is no God but Allah" in Arabic in his own blood on the tiles of the kitchen wall.

As the gunmen held out on the roof, police commandos in body armor and helmets entered the building and slowly worked their way to the upper floors.

The gunmen responded to police calls for them to surrender with chants of "Allahu Akbar," or God is Great.