TWO separate Pakistani militant groups claimed responsibility yesterday for the slaughter of at least 61 people during an assault on a police academy.

Militants wearing suicide vests stormed the academy in the Baluchistan capital Quetta, killing cadets and recruits and waging a ferocious gun battle with troops.

Officials expressed fears that the death toll could rise, as the four-hour siege also left 117 wounded, some of them in a critical condition.

The Islamic State group (Isis) claimed on the website of its Aamaq news agency that three Isis fighters had killed 60 police recruits, but it offered no previously unknown details of the attack.

A Taliban breakaway known as the Hakimullah group also said it was behind the atrocity, but officials did not confirm either claim.

The attackers caught many recruits asleep in their dormitories, forcing cadets and trainers to jump off rooftops and run for their lives to escape the assault.

While most of the casualties were police cadets and others at the academy, some army personnel who responded to the attack were also among those killed, said Quetta police spokesman Shahzada Farhat.

Baluchistan officials had earlier received “intelligence reports that some terrorists have entered the province,” but had no indications about possible targets.

“We had tightened security, which is why they could not do it in the city and chose a target on the outskirts,” said Baluchistan Chief Minister Sanaullah Zehri.

Provincial police chief Ahsan Mahboob said that four gunmen had been involved in the assault while a military statement pointed to perhaps six attackers.