Sri Lankan cricketer Ajantha Mendis arrives today at Bandaranayake International airport in Colombo, Sri Lanka. He was injured in an ambush Tuesday in Pakistan.

Lahore, Pakistan — As bullets pierced the sides and windshield of the coach bus carrying the Sri Lankan cricket team, driver Mohammad Khalil put his foot hard on the gas and kept it there.

“Go! Go!” shouted players as they ducked the hail of gunfire, suspected militants converging from three directions.

Minutes later the bus, riddled with 25 bullet holes, careered into the stadium and medics rushed to treat the bloodied athletes.

“All of us were taken aback,” said Khalil, who is being praised as a hero for steering the bus through the ambush. “I did not stop and kept moving.”

The attack, carried out Tuesday by at least 12 men armed with grenades, rocket launchers and automatic weapons, killed six police guards and wounded seven players and added to fears that the country was buckling under rising Islamist violence.

The assault bore striking similarities to last year’s three-day hostage drama in India’s financial capital: the attackers carried walkie-talkies and backpacks stuffed with water and dried fruit, worked in pairs and were caught on film brazenly shooting automatic weapons.

The gunmen’s preparations and large numbers indicated they may have been planning to hijack the vehicle and take the athletes hostage to “create a drama,” Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik told The Associated Press.

The attack was among the highest-profile terrorist strikes on a sports team since the 1972 Munich Olympics, when Palestinian militants killed 11 Israeli athletes.

In addition, by targeting not only a major Pakistani city but also the country’s most popular sport, the attack was sure to resonate throughout the region, where cricket has been an obsession since it was introduced by the British during the colonial era.

In targeting the sport, the gunmen were certain to draw international attention to the government’s inability to provide basic security as it battles militants linked to al-Qaida and the Taliban and faces accusations that it is harboring terrorists.

The attack ended Pakistan’s hopes of hosting international cricket teams — or any high profile sports events — for months, if not years. Even before Tuesday, most cricket squads chose not to tour the country for security reasons.

Besides the six police officers, a driver of a vehicle in the convoy was also killed, officials said. Seven Sri Lankan players, a Pakistani umpire and a coach from Britain were wounded, none with life-threatening injuries.