Six Lankan cricket players injured in firing in Lahore

Six Sri Lankan cricketers and their assistant coach were injured while their security guards were among eight people killed in the first ever terror strike in the history of the sport, forcing Colombo to immediately call off the tour.Wicket-keeper batsman Kumar Sangakkara and spinner Ajantha Mendis along with Samaraweera, Tharanga Paranavitana, Suranga Lakmal and Thilina Thushara were injured in the attack at the busy Liberty Chowk traffic roundabout, located less than a kilometre from Gaddafi Stadium, at 9 am.

Assistant coach Paul Farbrace also sustained minor injuries in the brazen attack, carried out by a dozen masked terrorists armed with rifles, grenades and rocket-launchers.
The gunmen ambushed the luxury bus ferrying Sri Lankan cricket team to Gaddafi Stadium to resume play on the third day of the second and final test match with Pakistan.
Eight people, most of them police guards accompanying the team, were killed during the nearly 30-minute exchange of fire.

The Sri Lankan team was airlifted from Gaddafi Stadium to the Lahore airport by a Pakistan Air Force helicopter on their way back home to Colombo.
Injured players Samaraweera and Paranavitana, who received bullet injuries, were rushed to the military hospital. They are out of danger and stable, said Chamara Ranavira, a Sri Lankan High Commission spokesman said.

TV footage showed gunmen with backpacks firing at the convoy as they fled from the scene, with several vehicles damaged and unexploded grenades lying around. None of the attackers were killed or captured, Lahore police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said.

"Most of us had small injuries while some suffered shrapnel wounds," Sangakkara said, adding, "All are fine now." "At the moment we are not thinking of anything else but going back home."
There were conflicting reports about captain Mahela Jayawardene being injured in the terror ambush.Sri lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, who has cut short his visit to Nepal, condemned the attack and rushed his Foreign Minister Rohita Bogollagama to Pakistan to assist in the team's safe return to Colombo.

Reports said reserve umpire Ahsan Raza, who was travelling in a separate car, was seriously injured and had been operated on in a local hospital. Hours after the ambush, authorities defused two car bombs before they could explode and recovered a cache of weapons in Lahore.

The Pakistani team was in its hotel at the time of the incident. Officials immediately took steps to prevent it from leaving the hotel.

Sri Lanka had agreed to play in Pakistan after India and Australia deferred their scheduled trips for security reasons. After playing three one-dayers in Pakistan, the Sri Lankan team had proceeded to India for five one-day matches and returned to Lahore for the two test matches.
"What has happened today in cricket can never happen in sports anywhere in the world. Obviously, my sympathies are with the Sri Lankan team," said former Pakistani captain Javed Miandad.

The Sri Lankan team called off its tour after the attack.