KARACHI, April 16: Tension and panic gripped parts of mafia-infested Lyari on Wednesday after rival gangsters exchanged heavy gunfire that left a seven-year-old boy dead and another child wounded, witnesses and police said.

Baghdadi police said the children playing in their street were caught in the crossfire between the gangsters belonging to Rahman Dakait and Arshad Pappu groups near Ahmed Shah Bukhari Road.

They said two children were wounded, one of them fatally, in the incident that also led to a violent protest by the residents who blocked the streets by erecting barricades and burning old tryes.

The victims were shifted to the Civil Hospital where Asghar Ali, son of Abbas, was pronounced dead. Hospital sources said the dead child received a bullet in his abdomen that proved fatal. They said the eight-year-old Umair, son of Suleman, was discharged from the hospital after being given treatment as he had sustained a slight wound.