As the night wore on , the buildings at Karachi 's Jinnah International Airport stood out , silhouetted against a backdrop of oily , orange blazes , the night air punctuated with the unmistakable chatter of machine-gun fire . We arrived on the scene shortly after the Taliban-claimed attack began on the country 's largest airport on Sunday night , which left 28 dead -- including 10 attackers -- and 24 injured . The airport , located off the city 's main arterial Shahrah-e-Faisal road , had already been sealed off by Pakistan Rangers , a heavily-armed paramilitary force . A number of vehicles -- both emergency and military -- lined the route in . We watched hundreds more rangers pouring in on the back of pickup trucks , guns mounted on top of each one . Terminal targeted . Even by the time the media had assembled at the scene , it was apparent things were far from settled . There was a commotion of people around the airport as gun battles still raged nearby , while thick plumes of black smoke drifted high into the sky as what smelled like aviation fuel burned . The gunmen had targeted Terminal 1 , the old terminal that had fallen out of regular use . This terminal is only ever used for people flying to and from pilgrimages , for private flights , or sometimes government flights . The gunmen may have chosen this part of the airport as an infiltration point because it is largely vacant . The attackers were trying to cut through barbed wire to get into the airport when they were spotted by Airport Security Force personnel ( ASF ) . A heavy gun battle ensued and four ASF members were killed -- the first fatalities of the attack . The terrorists apparently divided into two groups and hid in two different hangars near the terminal building . One was a hangar run by the national carrier , Pakistan International Airways ( PIA ) , and the other to the right -- where the thick black smoke plumed up before their eyes -- was a large hangar , known as the Ispahani hangar , which is used for wide-body aircraft maintenance . Police said one gunman detonated a suicide vest after being cornered in one of the hangars that contained fuel . Gunmen killed . By the early hours of Monday morning , senior government officials had made the VIP area of the terminal building their makeshift command center . We 'd just finished an interview with the chief minister of Sindh province , Qaim Ali Shah , when a group of senior military and police chiefs walked in looking very confident . They shook hands with the chief minister and declared that the militants had been killed . There was a quiet a moment of relief among everyone in the room . By contrast , we witnessed a disheveled group of airport workers leaving the building shortly after , their clothes soiled and torn . Most would not talk to the media , saying they were too traumatized to discuss their ordeal . But one older man described how the gunmen ran towards him and his colleagues and started shooting . He said they ran and hid in the toilet . While they were in there , he said they heard what they thought was a bomb . Though they feared the roof would collapse on them , they stayed hidden there for hours until soldiers arrived and told them it was safe to come out . The eyewitness , who asked not to be named , said some of the assailants were disguised as airport security workers , something that was later corroborated by Sindh Security Unit 's ( SSU ) Mohammed Waqar . He said others were dressed in black as airport security force commandos .
Gunmen disguised as airport security workers attack Karachi 's airport . Fuel blazes and heavy machine-gun fire add to confusion at scene . 28 people are killed in the attack ; another 24 are injured , officials say .