Karachi:
Street battles between two rival gangs armed with RPGs and machine guns killed more than 14 people - including four women - in Pakistan's Karachi on Wednesday, officials said.
The clash which according to police also injured 39 people, mainly schoolchildren, was the worst outbreak of violence to plague the troubled city in recent months.
It "erupted this morning when two gangs exchanged heavy gunfire," senior police official Faisal Bashir said, adding that school pupils had been hurt in the crossfire.
"Later they fired RPGs and lobbed hand grenades at each other," he added, saying the death toll was expected to rise.
Major Siptain Rizvi, a spokesman for paramilitary troops, added that two gangsters had been killed and one had been arrested.
Dr Seemi Jamali of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where some of the injured were taken, said three paramilitary rangers and two police were wounded.
Bashir, the police official, said the violence in Lyari erupted after one of the gangs kidnapped a member of the other gang on Tuesday night.
Local police said the fight was believed to involve two splinter gangs - the "Uzair Baloch" and "Ghaffar Zikri" groups - which grew out of the once-dominant Baba Ladla group.
Sporadic gunfire could still be heard coming from the scene on Wednesday afternoon, according to an AFP reporter. Police were preventing journalists from entering the area.
Lyari, one of the poorest and most violent neighbourhoods of Karachi, is known for clashes between rival gangs linked to political and ethnic groups.
But an operation launched by police and paramilitary government rangers in the city's tangled maze of teeming streets last September had appeared to be having a positive effect, until this latest incident.
Karachi, a city of 18 million people which contributes 42 per cent of Pakistan's GDP, has been plagued by sectarian, ethnic and political violence for years.
The city is also wracked by militants, especially the Taliban who last month claimed credit for a bomb blast that killed 12 policemen on a bus.
Karachi claimed a grisly record in 2012 with 2,124 people being murdered on its streets, according to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), the highest number since records began nearly 20 years ago.
The clash which according to police also injured 39 people, mainly schoolchildren, was the worst outbreak of violence to plague the troubled city in recent months.
It "erupted this morning when two gangs exchanged heavy gunfire," senior police official Faisal Bashir said, adding that school pupils had been hurt in the crossfire.
"Later they fired RPGs and lobbed hand grenades at each other," he added, saying the death toll was expected to rise.
Major Siptain Rizvi, a spokesman for paramilitary troops, added that two gangsters had been killed and one had been arrested.
Dr Seemi Jamali of the Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, where some of the injured were taken, said three paramilitary rangers and two police were wounded.
Bashir, the police official, said the violence in Lyari erupted after one of the gangs kidnapped a member of the other gang on Tuesday night.
Local police said the fight was believed to involve two splinter gangs - the "Uzair Baloch" and "Ghaffar Zikri" groups - which grew out of the once-dominant Baba Ladla group.
Sporadic gunfire could still be heard coming from the scene on Wednesday afternoon, according to an AFP reporter. Police were preventing journalists from entering the area.
Lyari, one of the poorest and most violent neighbourhoods of Karachi, is known for clashes between rival gangs linked to political and ethnic groups.
But an operation launched by police and paramilitary government rangers in the city's tangled maze of teeming streets last September had appeared to be having a positive effect, until this latest incident.
Karachi, a city of 18 million people which contributes 42 per cent of Pakistan's GDP, has been plagued by sectarian, ethnic and political violence for years.
The city is also wracked by militants, especially the Taliban who last month claimed credit for a bomb blast that killed 12 policemen on a bus.
Karachi claimed a grisly record in 2012 with 2,124 people being murdered on its streets, according to the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee (CPLC), the highest number since records began nearly 20 years ago.
