Islamist militants wearing suicide vests kill 60 cadets after storming a police academy in Pakistan

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Islamist militants wearing suicide vests have stormed a police academy in Pakistan killing at least 60 people and wounding dozens more.

Three gunmen from the Pakistani Taliban-linked group burst into the sprawling academy in Quetta targeting sleeping quarters that are home to some 700 recruits, gunning them down and sending some flee.

The shoot out is one of the deadliest extremist attacks this year and gunfire was still ringing out from the building several hours after the attackers stormed it.

The bodies of police cadets shot dead in a terror attack on a police academy are lined up on the ground in Quetta, Pakistan

A police cadet who was injured during an attack on a police academy in Pakistan is taken to a hospital. Islamist militants killed 60 during the attack on the Balochistan Police College

Three gunmen from the Pakistani Taliban-linked group burst into the sprawling academy in Quetta targeting sleeping quarters that are home to some 700 recruits. Pictured is an injured recruit receiving treatment 

It is believed the attackers had first targeted a watch tower sentry before killing a security guard and entering the academy grounds

A Pakistani volunteer and a police officer rush an injured person to a hospital in Quetta after the attack 

The attack on the Balochistan Police College began around 11.10pm yesterday when the three attackers burst into the building.

It is believed they had first targeted a watch tower sentry before killing a security guard and entering the academy grounds.

ISIS later released a picture of the men they claimed carried out the attack on the academy 

One cadet said: 'I saw three men in camouflage whose faces were hidden carrying Kalashnikovs.

'They started firing and entered the dormitory but I managed to escape over a wall.'

A picture released by ISIS which claims to show the three attackers responsible for storming the Pakistani police academy 

Security was tight outside the academy this morning, with media kept out of the building as a large contingent of security forces swept the area.

Weeping relatives arrived at the academy and were sent to the main hospital, where authorities were starting to prepare for funerals.

Major General Sher Afgan, chief of the paramilitary Frontier Corps in Balochistan, which led the counter-operation, said 'the attack was over in around three hours after we arrived'.

It is believed that the attackers covered their faces and used Kalashnikovs during the raid. Pictured is an injured cadet 

The shoot out is one of the deadliest extremist attacks this year and gunfire was still ringing out from the building several hours after the attackers stormed it

A trainee police officer lies injured in hospital while is relatives crowd around his bedside 

He added that communications intercepts showed the militants belonged to the Al-Alimi faction of the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi militant group -- which is affiliated with the Pakistani Taliban.

He said: 'They were in communication with operatives in Afghanistan.' The group itself has not claimed the attack.

The area was plunged into darkness when the counter-offensive was launched, while security personnel threw up a cordon and ambulances zoomed in and out, taking the injured to hospitals. Military helicopters circled overhead.

After the attack began, Pakistani army soldiers arrived at the police academy in a counter terrorism operation 

The area was plunged into darkness when the counter-offensive was launched, while security personnel threw up a cordon

Ambulances were also seen zooming in and out, taking the injured to hospitals while military helicopters circled overhead

Mineral-rich but impoverished Balochistan, Pakistan's largest province, is beset by sectarian strife, Islamist violence and an on-off separatist insurgency that has lasted for decades.

The army has also repeatedly been accused by international rights groups of abuses in Balochistan, particularly against nationalists demanding autonomy and a greater share of the region's resources.

In August, a suicide bombing at a Quetta hospital claimed by the Islamic State group and the Jamaat-ul-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.

Pakistan has been battling an Islamist insurgency since shortly after it decided to ally with the US following its invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

Pakistani family members of victims visit a police training center where gunmen opened fire in Quetta

The weeping relatives comforted each other after being told their loved ones had been sent to the morgue 

Violence has declined in recent years following a series of military offensives in the northwest border areas as well as concerted efforts to block the militants' sources of funding.

But the remnants of militant groups are still able to carry out periodic bloody attacks, particularly in the northwest.

Monday night's attack also came a day after separatist gunmen for the Baloch Liberation Army on a motorcycle shot dead two coast guards and a civilian and wounded a shopkeeper in a remote southwest coastal town in the same province.

Balochistan is also a key region for China's ambitious $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) infrastructure project linking its western province of Xinjiang to the Arabian Sea via Pakistan.

Security problems have mired CPEC in the past with numerous separatist attacks, but China has said it is confident the Pakistani military is in control.