Islamabad - Sri Lankan cricket team narrowly escaped a hostage situation or merciless executions on Tuesday when masked gunmen, believed to be Islamic militants, attacked it in Pakistan's eastern city of Lahore, leaving six police officers killed and seven players injured.

The gunmen targeted a bus carrying the Sri Lankan players to Gaddafi Stadium, where Sri Lanka and Pakistan were to open the third day of play of their second test match. The police van escorting the team also came under attack.

The assailants managed to flee by snatching a private car, leaving behind their bags packed with 32 hand grenades, 10 small machine guns, five pistols, a rocket launcher, and walkie-talkies.

A local police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity said the "miscreants" had with them stocks of "food and mineral water" which shows that they seemingly wanted to take the Sri Lankan players hostage.

"The weapons they had could destroy a full army platoon," said Khwaja Khalid Farooq, police chief in Punjab, where Lahore is located. "But policemen fought brilliantly and protected the Sri Lankan cricketers."

Four arrests were made, the English news channel Dawn News reported, citing Pakistan authorities, but the detentions were not officially confirmed.

A local television reporter, Aiman Mufti, who witnessed the ambush, said he saw four attackers trying to stop the bus, which was taking the Sri Lankan team from its hotel to the stadium, but the driver managed to speed away, averting a worse tragedy.

"Considering the way they were carrying out target killings, it's a miracle that the Sri Lankan players survived," Mufti said.

Television footage showed the attackers carrying backpacks, shooting at the police escort with assault rifles in a commando-style action. It also showed an attacker walking up to an injured traffic warden and shooting him cold-bloodily.

Lahore's top civil administrator, Khusro Pervez, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa over the phone that six policemen, including five in the team escort and a traffic warden, and one civilian were killed. City police chief Haji Habibur Rehman said the attack was carried out by up to a dozen gunmen.

The match was called off after the incident.

A spokesman for the Sri Lankan High Commission in Islamabad said six players and an assistant coach for the national team were injured.

Two players, Thilan Samaraweera and Tharanga Pranavithan, were taken to hospital, Chamara Ranaweera, with serious injuries though they were "out of danger now." Six Pakistanis, including a cricket board official, also were wounded.

Sri Lankan team spokesman said four more players - captain Mahela Jayawardena, Chamina Vass, Kumar Sangakkara and Ajantha Mendis - and coach Paul Farbrace received minor injuries.

A military helicopter evacuated the uninjured players from the stadium and the Sri Lankan team left Pakistan on a chartered flight later in the night.

Police sealed off the area, and helicopters were seen flying in search of the attackers, who managed to flee after the attack.

"We have surrounded the area," said Salman Taseer, the Punjab's governor. "Either we will capture or kill them."

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, but Taseer said he suspected Islamic militants were behind the action.

"These are the same people who carried out the Mumbai attacks," he said.

The Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group was blamed for the gun-and-bomb attacks in November in India's financial capital of Mumbai, which left more than 170 people dead and more than 300 wounded.

Pakistan has recently seen a series of suicide attacks as government forces battle Taliban militants in its tribal region along the Afghan border.

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack and asked the authorities "to immediately investigate the incident so that the perpetrators are identified and their motives exposed," according to an official statement.

Gilani termed it a terrorist attack and said its objective was to bring a bad name to Pakistan.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa said he "unequivocally condemned the cowardly terrorist attack" that targeted his country's team, which he said had gone to Pakistan as ambassadors of goodwill.

His government on Tuesday came under heavy criticism from opposition parties for sending the country's players to tour Pakistan when other countries refused to play there.

But Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge said Sri Lanka's team was sent only after Pakistan assured the security afforded it would be at the same level as for a visiting president or prime minister. (dpa)