A wave of violence engulfed Pakistan today as gunmen stormed a government building in Lahore and attacked two police academies on the outskirts of the city.

At least 18 people were killed in gunfights with police at the three centres as the city was plunged into chaos. There were reports that hostages had been seized in at least one attack.

The apparently co-ordinated assaults are a major escalation in a wave of terrorist strikes as Pakistan prepares for an assault on Taliban and al Qaeda militants.

"The enemy has started a guerrilla war," Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik said.

One raid in Lahore attacked a building housing the Federal Investigation Agency, a law enforcement body that deals with matters ranging from immigration to terrorism. It was reported that hostages had been seized.

Mohammad Riaz, an FIA employee speaking from inside the building via phone, said: "We are under attack. I can see two people hit, but I do not know who they are."

Senior government official Sajjad Bhutta said the dead included two gunmen, four government employees and a bystander. One of the dead wore a jacket bearing explosives.

Two other groups of attackers struck police training centres on Lahore's outskirts. At least seven police officers and four militants were reported to have been killed in the two attacks.

The attacks are linked to an "imminent" Pakistan army offensive in the South Waziristan tribal region. Two divisions numbering 28,000 men have blockaded the area, and about 200,000 people have fled since August in fear of the assault. The Taliban have warned Pakistan to stop pursuing them.

In another attack today, in the Taliban stronghold of the north-west, near the Afghan border, a suicide car bomber detonated his vehicle next to a police station, killing at least eight people. And a suspected US missile strike killed four alleged militants.

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