QUETTA: Six personnel of Levies force, who were escorting a Spanish tourist, were killed in an ambush in the Koshkok area of Mastung district on Wednesday.

The tourist and four Levies personnel were injured in a later exchange of fire.

The Spaniard was coming from Iran and was going to India via Lahore as part of his plan for a round-the-world cycle tour.

Sources said when Levies vehicles reached the Koshkok area near Derringer they came under severe fire. Four Levies men died on the spot.

The bike-rider, who was identified as Farancisco Javeir, suffered minor injuries when he fell from the cycle. He was helped by security personnel who were in another vehicle.

Two more Levies personnel and an assailant were killed in the exchange of fire which continued for two hours. Frontier Corps personnel also reached the place.

Some security official were of the view that the militants wanted to kidnap the tourist, but provincial home secretary Asad Gilani said the Levies personnel were the target of the assailants. “It was an ambush on Levies personnel,” he told Dawn.

Levies personnel sacrificed their lives but saved the tourist.

Mr Gilani said soon after receiving information about the attack, a contingent of quick-response troops was sent to the area.

Then an operation was launched with the help of two army helicopters. “The operation continued for two hours,” he said.

He confirmed the killing of six Levies men and a militant.

He said the injured Levies personnel and the Spanish cyclist were immediately taken to the CMH in Quetta. The cyclist was sent to Lahore by an evening flight. The home secretary said the militant who died was wearing a suicide jacket and he tried to blow himself up, but failed. “He looked like an Uzbek national,” official sources said.

The Levies personnel killed in the ambush were identified as Naib Risaldar Ghulam Farooq, Dafadar Abdul Wahid, Ali Bakhsh, Baboo Noor Ahmed, Hafiz Zahoor Ahmed and Abdul Muttalib.

A Spanish embassy spokesman said the cyclist was safe and had been discharged from hospital.