KARACHI, May 18: Three passers-by, including a teenage girl, were killed and four others were wounded in an exchange of gunfire between two armed groups in Lyari, police said.

Tension prevailing between rivals groups following the May 11 polls took an ugly turn on Saturday evening, police said.

They said that rival groups clashed in one of the streets of Hangoorabad near Agra Taj Colony and exchanged heavy gunfire.

“The firing claimed three lives,” said Lyari SP Najam Tareen.

“The victims were passers-by and have been identified as 60-year-old Haji Salman, 35-year-old Ramzan Dawood, and 13-year-old Afshan. It was an armed clash between one of the Lyari gangs with the armed group of the Kutchhi community.”

He said that the tension prevailed in the area before the election and it intensified after polling.

Although he did not explain the reasons behind the tension between the criminal gangs, SP Tareen said that each group was backed by a certain political party, which caused a rift between them.

“We have enhanced patrolling and deputed extra force in the troubled areas,” he said.

“Life has not returned to normality as everything is closed after the incident. But we have controlled the situation and before carrying out raids we are in the process of gathering information and intelligence reports.”

He said that the fresh incident was a fifth episode of armed clash between the rival groups, which so far had claimed four lives, after the May 11 polls.