Six killed as gunmen storm police station

Five police officers were killed when unidentified gunmen stormed a police station in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi today, authorities said.

One gunman died in the dawn attack when police returned fire.

The assault hit a police station near the airport at Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city and the frequent scene of extremist violence.

Ten gunmen entered the station and shouted, “We will not leave any police alive,” Officer Abdul Khaliq Shaikh told The Associated Press.

The assailants opened fire, killing two police officers and three constables, Shaikh said. Two of the policemen fired back, killing an attacker, he said.

The other gunmen, who had arrived in three or four vehicles, fled, Tariq Jamil, deputy inspector-general of police in Karachi, told a Pakistani television station.

Authorities had no immediate information on the motive behind the attack. Jamil said it would be premature for authorities to discuss what group might have been to blame.

“Of course this is terrorism, but we don’t know what kind yet,” Shaikh said.

Karachi, a port city of 14 million, has seen a series of attacks by Islamic extremists in recent years.

On March 15, police defused a huge bomb outside the US Consulate minutes before it was set to explode.

A suicide bomber blew up a truck in front of the consulate in June 2002, killing 14 people.

In April 2002, a bomb aimed at the motorcade of Pakistan’s President General Pervez Musharraf, a vital ally in the US war on terrorism, failed to detonate as he travelled through Karachi. Three Islamic militants were sentenced to 10 years in prison over the attack