Colombo  - Sri Lanka's cricket team returned home early Wednesday, one day after narrowly escaping a terrorist attack in Lahore, Pakistan with the team captain paying tribute to the bus driver for saving their lives.

The shaken team was welcomed at Colombo airport amid tight security by anxious relatives and Sports Minister Gamini Lokuge.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardene, speaking to journalists on arrival at Bandaranaike International Airport Wednesday morning said "if the driver had not driven off it would have been difficult for us to survive. Fortunately he was not injured and he managed to drive us away."

He said that vehicle was taking a large roundabout when they came under attack and driver initially was shocked, but within a minute he restarted the vehicle and moved away.

"In the next two to three minutes we heard continues gunfire and we knew that we were under a terrorist attack," he said.

Jaywardene said many players hid under the seats to escape the gunshots, which helped minimize the injuries.

Player Thilakaratne Dilshan, who was seated close to the driver, said that a shot fired at the driver narrowly missed its target and he urged the driver to drive as fast as he could.

Six team members and an assistant coach were injured in the attack, with star batsman Thilan Samaraweera to undergo surgery for pellets lodged in his knee, doctors attending to him said.

The players had been on their way to open the third day of play of their second test match in the eastern Pakistani city when they came under attack by a number of gunmen.

Jayawardene said that incident could have taken place in any part of the world, but refrained from commenting whether there were any security lapses.

Sri Lanka's public reacted with shock to the incident, many offering prayers for saving the team, expressing sympathy to the families of the six Pakistani police officers killed in the incident.

The Sri Lankan team was touring Pakistan after India refused play there due to security reasons following the November terrorist attack in Mumbai. (dpa)