Gunmen flee after attacking Airport Security Force camp in Karachi

Karachi: The second attack on Pakistan's Karachi airport in as many days has ended, a spokesman for the Airport Security Force (ASF) said, adding that the two gunmen involved had escaped.

"It was not such a big attack, two people came towards the ASF checkpost and started firing," Colonel Tahir Ali told reporters.

"They ran away after the firing and because we are on high alert, under the standard operating procedure we called in (paramilitary) rangers and the army."

Gunmen had attacked a training facility near the Karachi airport on Tuesday. Pakistani television stations showed images of security



guards rushing to the scene and frantically taking up positions behind buildings or earthen berms around the facility, which serves as a training center for airport security personnel. The facility is roughly one kilometer (half mile) from the Karachi international airport.

The attack began as at least two groups of gunmen tried to enter the facility from two different entrances, said Ghulam Abbas Memon, a spokesman for the Airport Security Force. The security forces were fighting them back, he said. Memon did not know how many attackers were involved or whether there were any casualties.

Details were sketchy and no one immediately claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack. The firefight came on the heels of a brazen siege by the Taliban who on Sunday night stormed Karachi's Jinnah International Airport in an attack that killed 36 people, including the 10 Taliban gunmen. At least 11 members of the Airport Security Force were killed during that attack.

The Civil Aviation Authority, which is responsible for running the country's airports, said in its Twitter feed that all flights at the Karachi international airport have been suspended because the academy for the ASF was under attack.

The organization called on people to be calm and patient.