Militants killed at least 60 people at a police training college near the western Pakistani city of Quetta overnight Monday, according to officials.
Three armed attackers wearing suicide vests entered the college, which houses 700 trainee police officers, and began shooting cadets in their sleeping quarters.
Officials have blamed a faction of the Pakistani Taliban for the attack, but the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) also claimed responsibility via its Amaq news agency.
Troops were deployed and the attackers exchanged gunfire with them for several hours. The fighting ended after one of the militants was killed by security forces and the other two detonated their bomb vests, the BBC reported.
The police college is in Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province. The provincial government spokesman Anwarullah Kakar told AFP that, in addition to the 60 dead, 118 people had been injured in the attack.
The chief of the paramilitary force that led the counter-operation, Major General Sher Afgan, said that intercepted communications showed the militants belonged to a faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group, which is affiliated to the Pakistani Taliban. Lashkar-e-Jhangvi has not claimed responsibility for the attack.
Afgan added that the militants had been in communication with operatives in Afghanistan. Quetta lies close to the Afghan border, and it is one of the most sensitive areas in Pakistan, with Balochistan nationalists demanding greater autonomy and Islamist militants launching regular attacks.
At least 70 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a hospital in Quetta city in August. Both ISIS and a faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
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Conor is a staff writer for Newsweek covering Africa, with a focus on Nigeria, security and conflict.
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