Fresh gunfire at Karachi airport has prompted Pakistan’s security forces to relaunch a military operation that ended a six-hour siege, leaving 24 dead.

“We have relaunched the operation and called in additional troops,” said Sibtain Rizvi, spokesman for the Rangers paramilitary force.

One police officer had been injured, he said.

An AFP reporter at the scene said gunshots could be heard inside the airport and that rangers and elite commandos were rushing inside.

The initial assault at the Jinnah International Airport began late on Sunday and raged until dawn, when the military said all 10 militants had been killed.

Equipped with suicide vests, grenades and rocket launchers, the militants had battled security forces in one of the most brazen attacks in years in Pakistan’s biggest city.

Among the 14 victims were security personnel and four airport worker.

Taliban claim responsibility

Pakistan’s Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on the country’s busiest airport on Monday, saying it was revenge for the army’s air strikes in areas along the Afghan border where the insurgents are based.

“We carried out this attack on the Karachi airport and it is a message to the Pakistan government that we are still alive to react over the killings of innocent people in bomb attacks on their villages,” said Shahidullah Shahid, a Taliban spokesman.

AAP/Reuters