9 killed in pro-Iran protest at US consulate in Pakistan's Karachi

Nine people died from gunshot wounds, according to the hospital record. Over 30 more were injured.

It was unclear as of Sunday evening who had fired the shots.

The chief minister of Sindh province, where Karachi is the capital, said he had ordered a probe into the deaths.

Syed Murad Ali Shah "instructed the authorities to conduct a transparent and impartial investigation to establish the facts", a statement said.

AFP journalists said clashes between police and protesters were still ongoing outside the consulate at 3:00 pm local time (1000 GMT).

"We don't need anything in Pakistan that is linked with the US," a protester, Sabir Hussain, told AFP.

"Our government and our forces are supporting the USA."

The protesters chanted slogans against the United States, Israel and their allies.

Earlier a crowd of young people climbed over the main gate and gained access to the driveway of the consular building, smashing some windows.

Police fired tear gas at the protesters, who dispersed, the AFP journalist saw.

In a video circulating on social media, a young demonstrator could be heard saying: "We need to remain united. No power can stop us."

"We are setting the American consulate in Karachi on fire. God willing, we are avenging the killing of our leader," another protester said as he filmed others trying to start a blaze.

- American 'stooges' -

Elsewhere in Pakistan, around 4,000 people took to the streets in the capital Islamabad, where AFP journalists heard overhead gunfire, believed to be to disperse the crowd, and saw tear gas even before the planned start of a rally at 3:00 pm.

Zahra Mumtaz, a 52-year-old housewife from nearby Rawalpindi, said: "Our leader has been martyred, and we are not even allowed to protest."

"The least the government could do is let us express our grief," she told AFP, crying.

"Our leaders are nothing but stooges of the Americans... The Americans and Israelis will have to pay for this."

In the northern city of Skardu, protesters stormed and set fire to a United Nations office, causing black smoke to rise from the building, an AFP reporter saw.

At least three nearby vehicles were completely burned.

Thousands of people also took to the streets in the eastern city of Lahore.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Sunday evening that the killing of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a "violation" of international law.

The "people of Pakistan join the people of Iran in their hour of grief and sorrow and extend the most sincere condolences on the martyrdom" of Khamenei, he wrote on X.

"Pakistan also expresses concern over violation of the norms of international law," he added.

The embassies of the United States and Britain both urged citizens in Pakistan to be cautious in the country.

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