LAHORE: Tears rolled down mother-of-two Asra’s face as she scrambled to get her sons home from St Anthony’s High School at 10:30 am.

‘I just need to know they’re ok, I need to find them,’ she cried while approaching the main gate. Heading in the other direction, dozens of people fled gunfire, some clutching their injuries, while smoke rose into the sky.

Just 10 minutes earlier the blast that had levelled the emergency police service (Rescue-15) building left 24 dead, hundreds injured, scores trapped in the rubble and damaged property worth millions of rupees. For shopkeepers and residents who had been through FIA explosion in March 2008, it was a case of deja vu.

‘This just shows events are out of control now. There is nothing anybody can do,’ said Muhammad Jibran, a tailor on Lawrence Road, who estimated the cost of his wrecked glass front and appliances would come to half a million rupees. ‘The government promised us compensation last time but nothing came of it – we don’t have much hope this time.’

Jibran had been comparatively lucky: two auto-workshops situated opposite the police building were left entirely obliterated, as was a petrol station, and the offices of five newspapers. Many in these buildings were injured as a result of falling debris from the ceiling or from fans. If the petrol station and CNG station had caught fire, the outcome could have been even worse.

Other buildings in the shopping plaza also suffered extensive damage, while glass fronts of buildings hundreds of metres away, including the Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education and the British Council on Mozang Road were shattered.

Brand-new cars in a showroom on Queen’s Road lay twisted and burnt-out like their counterparts on the street, a result of the impact of the blast from 100kg of explosives that was felt up to 6 kilometres away and by this reporter in the Lahore High Court. In all, over 70 vehicles were destroyed.

Emerging from the remains of an auto-workshop on Queen’s Road covered in dust and with a bloody gash on his head, Khalil-ur-Rehman, the owner, told Dawn that some six men had emerged from a white Toyota van and began firing on police, as well as into the street. Minutes later, the explosion occurred, and then the firing resumed.

‘The way they fired indiscriminately at innocent people – it’s hard to call them human beings, let alone Muslims,’ he said of the attackers. His anger at the militants, however, was matched by his disgust at the poor security arrangements. ‘This was a high-profile target, which people say had received threats. Couldn’t they do any better?’

His account of the incident was corroborated by another workshop worker, Muhammad Khalil, who added ‘the elite police ran away the minute they were fired upon’.

The two men noted, however, that the timing of the incident was not as bad as it could have been and that the morning rush had not yet begun.

A few minutes later the gunfire resumed once again: this time, elite squad officials perched on the rooftop of the police building began unloading their weapons at a ground-based target this reporter was unable to identify, and the usual crowd of spectators that had congregated at the blast site once again dispersed in panic.

The firing gradually gave way to the wail of ambulance sirens as civilian and military rescue crews began in earnest the task of recovering survivors and corpses alike. Security officials belatedly erected a cordon which proved ineffective at preventing the crime-scene from being trampled, while plain-clothes and army officials took to lashing out at cameramen capturing scenes of the area. Several television crews reported their equipment was confiscated.

Once again a resilient Lahori spirit emerged as ordinary citizens took to helping strangers to get to hospitals, while others distributed water to those present at the scene. Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah, however, was not able to make his presence felt for five hours after the blast, leaving some disappointed.

All the while, worried parents steadily streamed through to remove their children from surrounding schools. Unlike Asra, not all found their children unharmed.