LAHORE, Pakistan, Jan 27, 2011 (AFP) - A US consular worker shot dead two Pakistani motorcycle riders in a Lahore city street Thursday, senior officials told AFP, with the man claiming he fired in self defence.
"The American national told us he was driving his vehicle and stopped at a traffic signal. He saw motorcycle riders and one pulled out a pistol. The man told us he then pulled out his pistol and fired in self-defence," Lahore police chief Aslam Tarin told AFP.
Tarin said the American was in police custody amid ongoing investigations.
He later added in a television interview that two pistols had been recovered from the motorcycle riders, and said the gunman was a security official from the local consulate.
Another Pakistani man was killed shortly after the shooting when a car from the US consulate in Lahore hit two pedestrians at the scene of the shooting, Tarin added.
Head of the public Services Hospital in Lahore, Mohammad Ijaz, confirmed that three people had been killed.
"We received one dead body and two injured persons. Both of the wounded later died in the hospital," he told AFP.
A second police official, Faisal Rana, said the American man in custody had reported that the two motorcycle riders had attempted to stop his car.
"He fired on them in self-defence.... We have arrested the American. He is an employee of the American consulate," he said.
More than 100 people blocked the road after the incident by setting tyres on fire to protest against the killing, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
The protest later moved to picket the police station where the car involved in the incident was impounded
The US embassy in Islamabad confirmed the man involved was a consular official.
"We can confirm he's a consular employee, but we don't know exactly what happened. There's a lot of speculation and we're speaking with the police to find out exactly what happened," US embassy spokesman Alberto Rodriguez told AFP.
