KARACHI: A policeman and a private security guard were killed, while a suspect and a passer-by were wounded in an exchange of fire with armed robbers in the Garden area on Tuesday.

Police said that the wounded suspect was taken away by his accomplice on a motorbike.

According to SP City Sheraz Nazeer, two suspects riding the motorcycle stormed into a travel agency office at the Garden roundabout and started looting people at gunpoint. As the guard, Mohammed Rafiq, 40, put up resistance, the suspects opened fire on him. The sub-inspector, Ghulam Mustafa Khan, 45, who was performing his duty across the road, challenged the fleeing suspects. In an ensuing exchange of fire, one of the suspects sustained a gunshot wound in the leg and the sub-inspector was hit in the chest, the police officer said.

A passerby, Mumtaz Muzafar, 25, was also hurt in the firing. The wounded were taken to the Civil Hospital Karachi where doctors pronounced the police official and the guard dead on arrival.

The SP City said there were also two other policemen deployed for the security of the market but they were at some distance and the ‘brave’ policeman alone challenged the robbers and managed to foil the robbery bid.