An American official shot and killed two men in Lahore, Pakistan, according to Pakistan's GeoTV.

He is said to have been driving an unmarked Honda sedan when two men on a bike stopped by his car at an intersection, and one of them pulled out gun. The men were later discovered to have been carrying weapons.

After the shooting, the man identified as Raymond Davis by The Guardian, called his colleagues. They rushed to the crime scene in another embassy vehicle and ran over a pedestrian who later died in hospital.

Davis is being questioned by police in Lahore and is being charged with murder and illegal possession of a weapon according to the AP. It is uncertain whether the man has diplomatic status. He has told police that he pulled the weapon in self defense. Witnesses also claim to have seen one of the bikers pull a gun on the American.

Police say this was an attempted robbery but have failed to dig up any evidence that points to robbery as a motive.

Davis is said to have practiced "good situational awareness", according to Stratfor. His car was designed to be inconspicuous. It bore no flags and had a local license plate. He is also reported to have taken photos of the men on the bike after the shooting, a sign that he was trained to gather evidence the article suggests.

Stratfor's report suggests that there were multiple assailants though it remains unclear whether the rear window of the car was destroyed by bullets from Davis' 9 mm gun or if any bullets were fired by the assailants.

After the incident a crowd gathered blocking the road and burning tyres in anger in a part of the world that has been very vocal about its anti-American sentiments. The brother of the dead pedestrian told The Guardian:

"We will not take the body of my brother until the foreigner is punished. We will file a case against him so he is hanged."

There have been multiple attacks on American officials in Pakistan since 2006 and the U.S. had launched a diplomatic mission in Lahore. Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told the AP:

"We want to make sure that a tragedy like this does not affect the strategic partnership that we are building with Pakistan and we'll work as hard as we can to explain that to the Pakistani people."