KARACHI, April 6: Over a dozen armed bandits stormed into a housing society on Wednesday and escaped safely after killing a young resident, police said.

They said that the bandits entered two different houses in Saadi Town in the early hours of Wednesday, held the family members at gunpoint and started collecting valuables.

However, area security guards reached the scene in their mobile van to challenge the bandits.

“The vehicle of the area security guards bore some resemblance to a police mobile van,” said Sub-Inspector Arshad Leghari, the SHO of the Malir Cantt police station. “Robbers fired at the guard from the house of Noman and ran away without taking anything. However, the robbers in the other house situated in the other street stayed there and took their time to leave the place.”

Noman was not aware of the exact situation and he came out of the house with other neighbours to share his ordeal with the security guards, he said, adding that the robbers in the other house got panicked when they saw scores of residents.

“After a few seconds the robbers came out of the house and fired at Noman. He was hit by two bullets and died on the spot,” said the area SHO.

He said that the group of bandits was actively involved in house robberies and in the fresh incident a total of 14 men armed with TT pistols and shotguns targeted two houses in the society.

The robbers did not use any vehicle to escape and they were not chased by the area security personnel, he added.

“The victim was father of three and employed with a five-star hotel,” said the SHO. “We have registered a case (FIR 45/2011) under Section 396 (dacoity with murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint of Akhtar Hussain, the brother-in-law of the victim.”