Pakistani police said four gunmen attacked the Pakistan Stock Exchange building in Karachi’s financial center, killing at least three people, on Monday.
Karachi police said the four attackers had been shot dead in a thwarted attack, and that the building housing the stock exchange had already been cleared.
Two security guards and a police officer were also killed in the encounter with the attackers, police said.
“There were four terrorists and they were armed with weapons and explosives,” a Pakistani security official told NBC News on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media about the attack. “They entered the stock exchange building in the morning and killed two security guards at the main entrance.”
The official said there were few people inside the building at the time of the incident since the attackers arrived early in the morning.
Rizwan Ahmend, a police officer at the scene, told the Associated Press that, after the attack ended, food supplies were found in the gunmen’s bodies, indicating that they may have planned a long siege, that the Police quickly dismissed it.
Mohammad Ayaz Khan, who was trapped inside the stock exchange building during the attack, told NBC News that he had just entered his office when he heard gunshots.
“I had no idea what was going on, but then I got a phone call from my boss and he told me about the attack on the stock exchange building,” Khan said, adding that he and two other people had to hide inside. of a closed office. until the police cleared the building.
There were no reports of injuries among brokers and employees within the exchange.
The Karachi Stock Exchange is the oldest and largest stock exchange in Pakistan. The building that houses it is located in the heart of the Karachi financial district, where the Pakistan State Bank is based, as well as the headquarters of several national and international financial institutions.
Managing director of the Pakistan Stock Exchange, Farrukh Khan, said trading continued during the attack.
The Associated Press reported that the Balochistan Liberation Army claimed responsibility for the attack. NBC News has not been able to independently verify that information.
The group has been waging an insurgency for years, demanding independence from Pakistan’s gas-rich southwestern province of Baluchistan, which borders the southern province of Sindh, where Karachi is the province’s capital.
The group has also circulated a photograph of four men in full armor and camouflage suits, saying they were the militants who attacked the stock exchange, according to the Associated Press.
Mushtaq Yusufzai reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. Yuliya Talmazan from London. Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Associated Press contributed
