At least 49 people were killed in Pakistan's biggest city of Karachi on Thursday in a third consecutive day of bitter violence blamed on political and ethnic tensions, officials said.
In the worst incident at least 10 passengers were killed late Thursday and 20 injured when armed men attacked two buses in a neighbourhood in the west of the city.
"Unknown armed men intercepted two buses on a road in Banaras Chowk neighbourhood and shot indiscriminately on the passengers, killing at least 10 and wounding 20 others," provincial home ministry official, Sharfuddin Memon, told AFP.
He said identity of the attackers -- who escaped via the narrow lanes of the neighbourhood after the assault -- was not immediately known.
A security official also confirmed the incident and casualties.
The dead bodies were taken to a local hospital, where scores of people had arrived to identify their relations.
Ambulances had been racing through the city's troubled areas all day, ferrying bodies and the injured to hospitals.
Earlier officials said a third straight day of violence had killed nearly 40 people not including the bus attacks.
The killings have been blamed on loyalists of former coalition partners the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and Awami National Party (ANP), which represent different ethnic communities and straddle volatile political fault-lines.
They underscore deep insecurity in the country's economic hub, which is used by NATO to ship supplies to Afghanistan. The city is also plagued by sectarian killings, crime and kidnappings.
A security official said several neighbourhoods remained tense and gunfire could be heard as the sun set.
Local residents complained they were virtually confined to their homes because of indiscriminate firing.
"Many people here had run out of their food stocks. There is no milk for children and no chance of patients being shifted to hospitals for treatment," said Mohammad Asghar, a schoolteacher in the Orangi area.
"We are left at the mercy of trigger-happy scoundrels and the security forces are conspicuous by their absence," he added.
The MQM announced its parliamentarians would rally on Friday to protest against the Karachi killings.
"Our supporters are being killed to punish us for quitting the ruling coalition," MQM leader Raza Haroon said.
"We have decided that our parliamentarians would hold peaceful rallies in Karachi and Islamabad on Friday."
Local Express TV channel said its reporting staff survived after their van was fired on the way back from interviewing a family affected by the violence.
"Our staff survived a dangerous attack," said a TV spokesman.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan says 490 people have been killed in targeted killings so far this year, compared to 748 in 2010 and 272 in 2009.
This week it blamed the government, led by the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) of President Asif Ali Zardari, for failing to stop the killings.
The MQM recently quit the PPP-led coalitions that rule both Sindh, where Karachi is the capital, and the federal government. ANP is still a partner.
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