A US government official shot dead two Pakistanis during an apparent attempted robbery on a Lahore street this afternoon. A third man died after being run over by an embassy vehicle rushing to the scene.
Local police took the American, named by local media as Raymond Davis, into custody.
The US embassy confirmed he was an employee but did not specify his job or say why he was carrying a weapon. Pakistani television stations (Dunya TV and Geo TV) speculated he was a CIA agent.
Crowds of protesters burned tyres on the site of the shooting as the Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, ordered an immediate inquiry into the incident.
“The American told us that he opened fire in self-defence after one of the men pulled out a pistol,” the Lahore police chief, Aslam Tarin, told Reuters.
