Karachi:

Police shot down a gunman accompanying the bomber in a suicide bomb attack in Pakistan on Friday, leaving five Japanese citizens unhurt but two bystanders among the three injured, a police spokesman said.

Terrorists seeking to overthrow the government and establish their own strict Islamic rule have carried out some of Pakistan’s bloodiest attacks in the past few years, with some separatist groups targeting foreigners including Chinese.

However, no terrorist group immediately claimed responsibility for the rare attack on a Japanese national, who was identified by Pakistani authorities as engineers working to manage an export processing zone in the port city.

Spokesman Abrar Hussain Baloch said the Japanese had been moved to a secure location in police custody, although bystanders and a guard with the tourists were injured.

“The nearby police mobile unit quickly responded to the attackers, as did the security personnel of the foreign guests,” Baloch added.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Hayashi told a news conference in Tokyo that a Japanese national had been confirmed injured and that the government was examining details and notifying other citizens of Pakistan of the risk.

Pakistani counter-terrorism official Raja Omar Khatab told reporters that one of the two attackers on a motorcycle detonated the explosive strapped to him after the vehicle slowed down, but failed to hit the target.

This prompted his accomplices to start shooting at the vehicle.

“I think he fired about 15 or 16 shots,” Khattab said, adding that private security guards and foreigners, as well as a nearby police patrol, returned fire and killed the second attacker.

He said the men had been following the Japanese group’s vehicles for some time before the attack, and authorities suspected they were conducting reconnaissance to determine the target and location of the attack.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemned the attack and praised the police for taking timely action to save lives.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)