Agencies add: "Terrorists are firing and using grenades. They have taken people inside the worship place hostage," district civil defence official Mazhar Ahmed told AFP from the scene in the bustling neighbourhood Garhi Shahu. The attacks sparked more than two hours of gun battles with police and commandos, as bursts of heavy gunfire rocked the neighbourhoods and rescue services raced through the streets to tend to the victims.
"The prayer leader was delivering a sermon inside the hall when I suddenly heard distant gunshots," Bilal Ahmed, a worshipper told AFP after fleeing with his life from the worship place in Model Town. "Then the firing became louder and closer and people started running here, there and everywhere to save themselves. Gunmen had entered the prayer hall and they were moving towards upper floors. "The attackers were youths with beards who were not covering their faces. The floor was full of blood and broken glass," Ahmed said.
As the gun battles ended in both locations, officials spoke of scenes of carnage - particularly in Garhi Shahu where dozens of bodies were found. "Around 80 people have been killed," Sajjad Bhutta, the top city administrative official in Lahore, told reporters.
Doctor Rizwan Nasir, head of the rescue services in Lahore, said 108 people were wounded as police continued to search for any remaining attackers. Friday's attacks were the worst in Pakistan since a suicide bomber killed 101 people on January 1 at a volleyball game in Bannu, which abuts the tribal belt along the Afghan border that Washington calls an al Qaeda headquarters.
Nine attacks have killed around 265 people in Lahore since March 2009, a historical city, playground for the elite and home to many top brass in Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence establishment. The precise number of attackers at Garhi Shahu was not immediately clear, but police said there were at least three in Model Town.
"They came into the worship place from the back and started firing. They were armed with hand grenades and suicide vests and other weapons," Rana Ayaz, a senior local police official, told AFP. Officials said one of the attackers blew himself up and two were arrested - one of them a teenager. The other was seriously wounded.
"Initially we saw some selling after the attack but investors started accumulating shares at lower levels," said Asad Iqbal, chief executive at Faysal Asset Management Ltd adding that there was foreign buying which boosted local confidence.
BR staff reporter adds: The dead included three police officials, a worker of a news channel and a member of bar. Those killed were identified as Muhammad Yunas, Anwar, Nazir Ahmed, Lal Khan, Shahid Ahmed Tahir, Muhammad Ashraf, Chaudhry Hafeez advocate, Mian Munir, Yahya Khan, Syed Arshad, Chaudhry Ahmed Malik, Mubashar Ahmed, Arshad Butt, Laeeq Ahmed, Malik Zubair, Muhammad Ashraf, Nasir Ahmed Chaudhry Irfan, Anees Waseem, Ijazul Haq of a private electronic channel, Mahmood Ali, Mubarak, Ilyas, Iftikhar Ghani, Asghar Yaqoob, Maqsood Ahmed and Mirza Mansoor Baig.
Militants hit the two places simultaneously at 1.41 pm and the law enforcement authorities secured the places after operations of about two hours. About 1,000 persons were present at the MT Centre while about 600 in the Ghari Shahu worship place of the Ahmedi community.
According to police sources, five terrorists attached Ghari Shahu while seven targeted Model Town centres of worship. Police also held a search operation in the area and arrested a suspect from Ghari Shahu and shifted him to some unknown place for interrogation. Police recovered 18 hand grenades, two suicide vests, and two kg of explosive material, two plates of ball-bearing, 4 lead sheets and six sets of detonators from Model Town.
Some passers-by were also injured and a security guard of the centre was killed in the cross fire. The terrorists also caused damage to several cars outside the Model Town centre through a blast before they stormed the place of worship. Most of the people saved their lives by taking shelter in the basement of the buildings.
The injured persons and bodies were shifted to various hospitals, including Jinnah, Services, Sheikh Zaid, Ganga Ram, Mayo, General and Ittefaq. Emergency was declared in the hospitals and appeals were made for blood donations.