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Four gunmen attacked the Pakistani stock market in Karachi, killing two guards and a policeman and wounding seven others before being shot dead.
The assailants launched a grenade attack at the most gate to the building and opened fire but police say they did not make it to the floor.
The staff inside took refuge in locked rooms and lots of were evacuated. Security forces are searching for the world.
Militants from the Baloch Liberation Army say they were behind the attack.
Ethnic Baloch groups have fought a long-running insurgency for a separate homeland and a greater share of resources in Pakistan's Balochistan province.
Pakistan has suffered years of militant violence, mostly by Islamist groups, but attacks like this one became rare in recent years.
'They opened fire on everyone'
Monday's attack began when the militants armed with automatic rifles threw a grenade then began firing at a security post outside the stock market.
"The attackers came during a silver Corolla and were stopped by police at the gate outside where the exchange of fireside happened," Sindh police additional military officer Ghulam Nabi Memon told BBC Urdu.
Guards fought back, killing all four heavily armed attackers, the authorities say. Three police officials are among the seven wounded receiving treatment in the hospital.
Mr. Memon said the attackers didn't manage to enter the most building and grenades, explosives, and other weapons were recovered from them. The Pakistan stock market confirmed that no militants made it into the building.
Its director, Abid Ali Habib, said the gunmen made their way from the parking lot and "opened fire on everyone".
Images from the scene show the bodies of a minimum of two men on the bottom next to large amounts of ammunition and weapons. it had been not immediately clear if more assailants were involved, prompting an in-depth search of the premises by security forces.
Reports say most of the people at the stock market managed to flee or hide in locked rooms. Those inside the building were evacuated from the rear door, Geo TV reported.
Trading continued without interruption.
"We locked ourselves in our offices," Asad Javed, an employee at a brokerage within the building, told Reuters press agency.
The stock market has offices for many financial institutions and is situated during a high-security zone alongside head offices of banks and other businesses.
The exchange says it's up to eight,000 people working there on a traditional day but numbers were down due to home working during the coronavirus pandemic.
Why are Baloch groups fighting?
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) is one among half a dozen armed resistance groups in Balochistan and has launched previous attacks in Pakistan.
In 2018 its members tried to storm the Chinese consulate in Karachi, killing a minimum of four people. All staff inside the building were unharmed.
Last year the BLA attacked a five-star hotel within the port city of Gwadar in Balochistan. The hotel is the centerpiece of a multi-billion-dollar Chinese project and was selected to focus on Chinese and other investors.
Separatist militants in Balochistan oppose Chinese investment, saying it's of little benefit to local people.
The BLA originally sought political autonomy for the province but has gradually evolved into a violent armed separatist movement and is listed as a terrorist organization by Pakistan, the united kingdom, and therefore the US. Widescale abuses and repression by the Pakistani military are documented over decades within the province, which is difficult to access by journalists and human rights groups.
Balochistan may be a sparsely populated region, and therefore the BLA and other militants have sanctuaries there and in adjoining areas in Pakistan. They are also believed to possess hideouts in south-eastern Afghanistan.
The province remains Pakistan's most impoverished area despite being rich in gas and coal reserves, also as copper and gold. Baloch nationalists have long accused the central government of exploitation and denying the province its due rights.
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