KARACHI: Gunmen on motorcycles late Monday shot dead four policemen in Karachi, police said.

The incident occurred in Ibrahim Hyderi area, a poor neighbourhood in the eastern part of the port city where the policemen were on duty.

“The attackers came on motorcycles, they opened fire on the police and fled away,” senior police official Munir Shaikh told AFP, adding that “all four policemen died in the attack”.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

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.

Rangers are currently taking part in a joint operation with police in Karachi aimed at cleansing the city of terrorists and other hardcore criminals, including hired killers, gun runners and drug peddlers.

Earlier last month a Taliban suicide attacker killed one of Pakistan's best-known police commanders, famed for his fearless work tackling militants in the city.

Chaudhry Aslam, the head of the criminal investigation department who had survived numerous assassination attempts in the past, died along with two other officers when a bomber targeted a police convoy on an expressway in eastern Karachi.