QUETTA: Two security personnel have been martyred after terrorists stormed the New Sariab Police Training Center in Quetta late Monday night. At least 87 people including police recruits have also been injured in the terrorist attack.

The military’s media wing, ISPR, said at least five armed gunmen attacked the centre’s hostel in Sariab Road. Pakistan Army and Frontier Corps (FC) troops soon arrived at the site, and an operation is continuing.

Senior army officials, IG Balochistan Ahsan Mehboob and other senior law enforcement have been supervising the security operation. According to Media, two terrorists have been eliminated.

The attackers are said to have entered the complex through the front gate and launched the attack at 11:30pm.

Meanwhile, police and civil administration officials at the site said they had heard three blasts.

Law enforcers at the attack site.

What we know so far

– At least five attackers initiated the assault at 11:30pm

– The injured include police recruits and FC personnel

– Pakistan Army, FC soldiers taking part in the operation

– At least 200 cadets rescued

– Emergency declared at all government hospitals in Quetta

Balochistan Home Minister Sarfaraz Bugti confirmed that an operation against the terrorists is under way.

It was not immediately clear how many cadets were in the building at the time of the attack. Bugti said it normally housed around 700 but “recently there was a batch which graduated so I can’t say how many there are now”. Reports suggested at least 200 cadets were rescued.

The training college is situated on Sariab Road, one of the most sensitive areas of Quetta. Militants have been targeting security forces in the area for almost a decade.

Meanwhile, emergency was declared in all government hospitals of the provincial capital. The injured policemen were shifted to the civil hospital, and CMH.

Extraordinary security arrangements have been made in and outside the civil hospital to prevent any untoward incident.

Police officials stand outside the Sandiman hospital in Quetta

Balochistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri, in a statement, said there were intelligence reports of a possible attack.

No group has yet claimed responsibility but separatists with external support have been waging an insurgency for years, and the province is also riven by sectarian strife and violence.

A police truck is seen at a gate to the Police Training Center after an attack on the center in Quetta, October 25, 2016.

The attack came a day after separatist gunmen on a motorcycle shot dead two coast guards and a civilian and wounded a shopkeeper in Gwadar.

In August, a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital claimed by the Islamic State group and the Jamaatul Ahrar faction of the Pakistani Taliban killed 73 people, including many of the city’s lawyer community who had gone there to mourn the fatal shooting of a colleague.