US consulate in Peshawar attacked

Two security men and four attackers were killed when heavily armed militants in two vehicles tried to storm the US consulate in Peshawar on Monday.

A series of powerful explosions and gunfire rocked Peshawar area of Saddar as heavy grey smoke spewed into the sky, witnesses and a security official said.

Khyber Road where the US Consulate building is situated, is being air-monitored by the helicopters.

Television footage showed a heavy mushroom cloud and smoke rising into the air over the garrison part of the city, close to the US consulate and the Peshawar headquarters of Pakistan’s top spy agency, bombed last November.

Bursts of heavy gunfire could also be heard in the wake of blasts which a foreign news agency puts at five in number.

The Khyber Road, where the US Consulate is situated, has been closed.

The cameras of news channels were live covering the incident with security personnel on their positions, when two consecutive blasts occurred.

The series of these three blasts occurred within 20 minutes and shook the city followed by extreme firing. The second and third blasts occurred in vehicles.

The blasts were so intense that the mobile phones services were closed for some time.

Emergency has been declared in Peshawar Hospital.

The US Consulate official said the Consulate is garnering information about the blasts.