Pakistan police school siege kills eight

Hundreds of policemen fanned out across the rooftop of the main building and around the camp near the eastern city of Lahore, cheering and firing into the air in joy after the nearly eight-hour siege, in which dozens were wounded.

Interior ministry chief Rehman Malik said four "terrorists" were killed.

"It is a planned, organised, terrorist attack. This shows the extent to which the enemies of our country can go," Malik said.

At least three bearded men surrendered to a small group of commandos on the rooftop at the end of the deadly attack.

Police said three of the dead attackers blew themselves up using suicide vests.

Rescue workers found bloodied limbs and an AFP reporter saw part of a blown-apart severed head embedded in the outer wall of the compound.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani praised the security forces for "successfully" taking control of the besieged centre and rescuing hundreds of police personnel who were trapped inside.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband condemned the siege as "yet another reminder of the threat that Pakistan faces from violent extremism".

"It is a threat that the international community must help Pakistan to tackle, in the interests both of Pakistan's people and of wider stability," he said.

The raid echoed the brazen March 3 assault in the same area on Sri Lanka's cricket team, underscoring the scale of the militant unrest that US President Barack Obama has called a "cancer" that risks killing Pakistan.

Armed with grenades and guns, the attackers shot their way into the camp, not far from the border with arch-rival India, in what one wounded survivor called an attempt to kill as many people as possible.

Officials said the assailants were masked and some were in police uniform, with others in civilian clothes and carrying sports bags.

The interior ministry's Malik said 95 policemen were wounded, in addition to two civilians.

"Three terrorists blew themselves up, one suicide jacket and a number of hand grenades and sophisticated arms were recovered," he added.

It was not clear how a fourth attacker may have died.