An armed attacker posing as a dental patient has killed a man and injured two other people at a clinic in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi.
All three were Chinese-Pakistani dual nationals and had operated the dental clinic in the area for 40 years.
Detectives say the attacker, who was in his early 30s, “didn’t hurt Pakistanis” in Wednesday’s incident.
The suspect managed to escape with the help of an accomplice on a motorbike.
Police have identified the victims as Ronald Chow, who worked as an assistant to dentist Richard Hu, 74, and his wife Margaret, 72.
According to local media, the couple were wounded in the shooting and are being treated in hospital.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and the motive is not known.
However, it is not the first attack on Chinese citizens in the south Asian country.
In the most recent last April, three Chinese language teachers and their Pakistani driver were killed in an alleged suicide bombing in Karachi, near the city’s Confucius Institute.
The separatist Baloch Liberation Army – which opposes Chinese investment in Pakistan for not benefiting locals – said it attacked the vehicle.
China is heavily involved in large infrastructure projects across Pakistan, including in resource-rich Balochistan province – the country’s poorest region, and home to a long-running insurgency.
The province – which neighbours Karachi – is being transformed by major Chinese infrastructure projects on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the two countries which forms part of Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road initiative.
Wednesday’s attack has been condemned by Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah, who said such incidents were “intolerable”.
“The security of Chinese residents should be ensured in every way,” he tweeted.