Sri Lankan team evacuated by chopper after attack

LAHORE, Pakistan – A Pakistan army helicopter has evacuated the uninjured members of the Sri Lankan cricket team from the stadium following an attack on its tour bus.

It was not clear where the team was headed. The chopper took off from the turf of the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore in eastern Pakistan.

Earlier Tuesday, gunmen attacked the team 100 yards (meters) away from the stadium, wounding several players and killing five policeman.

Police say they have not captured any of the assailants.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A dozen men attacked Sri Lanka's cricket team with rifles, grenades and rocket launchers Tuesday ahead of a match in Pakistan, wounding several players and killing five police officers in a brazen attack on South Asia's most beloved sport.

The assailants ambushed the convoy carrying the squad and match officials at a traffic circle close to the main sports stadium in the eastern city of Lahore ahead of a match against Pakistan's national team, triggering a 15-minute gunbattle with police guarding the vehicles.

None of the attackers were killed or captured at the scene, city police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said. Authorities did not speculate on the identities of the attackers or their motives.

The injuries to the members of the Sri Lankan squad — which included its coach, an Australian — were not believed to be life-threatening, officials said.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa condemned the attack and ordered his foreign minister to immediately travel to Pakistan to help assist in the team's evacuation and ensure they are safe.

TV footage showed gunmen with backpacks — apparently the attackers — firing at the convoy as they retreated from the scene, with several damaged vehicles and a lone, unexploded grenade lying on the ground.

Pakistan is battling a ferocious insurgency by Islamist militants with links to al-Qaida who have staged high-profile attacks on civilian targets before.

One militant group likely to fall under particular suspicion is Lashkar-e-Taiba, the network blamed for the Mumbai terror attacks. The group has been targeted by Pakistani authorities since then and its stronghold is in eastern Pakistan. The nature of the Tuesday's attack — coordinated, using multiple gunmen armed with explosives — is also reminiscent of the Mumbai strikes.

Authorities will also considering possible links to Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger separatist rebels who are being badly hit in a military offensive at home, though Sri Lankan military spokesman Brig. Udaya Nanayakkara says authorities there did not believe the group was responsible.

In the past, nuclear-armed rivals Pakistan and India have blamed each other for terror attacks in their territories.

Any allegations like that would worsen the already dangerously high tensions between the countries as a result of the Mumbai strikes.

India's Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram in New Delhi said his country condemned the attack. "We are sorry for the Sri Lankan team," he said.

A Sri Lankan foreign ministry official said two players — Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Paranavitana — were hospitalized. He said three more players were slightly injured and that the head coach, Australian Trevor Bayliss, also sustained minor injuries. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Squad member Kumar Sangakkara told Sri Lankan radio station Yes-FM that "all the players are completely out of danger."

"Luckily there's nothing serious and everyone is fine," he said.

Police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said five policemen died in the attack by 12 masked gunmen.

Authorities canceled the test match and the Lahore governor said the team was flying home.

The attack will surely mean the end of international cricket in Pakistan for months, if not years. Even before, most teams refused to tour the country because of security concerns. It will also have implications on the game's future in South Asia, its most lucrative market.

"It is terrible incident and I am lost for words," said Steve Davis, an Australian who was umpiring the match.

Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona said little could be done to stop such an attack.

"I think the Pakistani authorities have provided adequate security but as we know from experience ... there is never enough security to counter a well organized and determined terrorist group."

Nadeem Ghauri, a Pakistani umpire who witnessed the attack, said the umpires were behind a bus of Sri Lankan players when suddenly they heard gunshots.

"The firing started at about 8:40 and it continued for 15 minutes," he said, adding "our driver was hit, and he was injured."

A driver of one of the vehicles in the convoy told Pakistan's private Express news channel that he saw a man firing a rocket toward their van and then someone hurled a grenade, but the explosives missed their vehicle. Bullets then started hitting the bus, he said.

"It was a terrorist attack and the terrorists used rocket launchers, hand grenades and other weapons," Rehman said, adding police were hunting down the attackers who managed to flee. "Our police sacrificed their lives to protect the Sri Lankan team."

Most of the violence in Pakistan occurs in its northwest regions bordering Afghanistan, where Taliban and al-Qaida militants have established strongholds. Lahore has not been immune from militant violence, however.

In May 2002, a deadly suicide car bombing in the southern city of Karachi damaged the Sheraton Hotel, where members of the New Zealand cricket team were staying. The players were unharmed but canceled their test match and left Pakistan within hours.

Sri Lanka appeared on the brink of crushing the Tamil Tiger rebels after more than a quarter century of civil war.

In recent months, government forces have pushed the guerrillas out of much of the de facto state they controlled in the north of the Indian Ocean island nation and trapped them in a small patch of land along the coast.

The rebels, who are fighting for an independent state for Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, are listed as a terror group by the U.S. and E.U. and are routinely blamed for suicide bombings and other attacks targeting civilians.

The rebels rarely launch attacks outside Sri Lanka, though their most prominent attack — the assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi by a female suicide bomber — took place at an election rally in India in 1991.