KARACHI: A woman identified by police as a US national was shot and wounded in Karachi Thursday, officials said, with leaflets found at the scene claiming the attack on behalf of the Islamic State group.

The victim, in a stable condition after being shot once in the head and once in the arm, was identified by police as Debra Lobo, a member of faculty at the city’s Jinnah Medical and Dental College.

“Lobo was on her way to the college when her car came under attack by two armed assailants riding on a motorbike on Shaheed-e-Millat Road in the eastern part of the city,” a police official told AFP requesting anonymity.

The incident was confirmed by senior police official Pir Mohammad Shah, who said she was a US national. According to the website of the college, Lobo is an Associate Professor of Community Health Science.

The US embassy has not confirmed the identity or nationality of the victim. “We’ve seen press reports and are monitoring and looking into the reports,” a spokesperson told AFP.

Shah said messages in English and Urdu were dropped at the scene saying the attack was carried out by the “Lions of Daulah Al-Islamiyyah,” using the Arabic name for the Islamic State group (IS) which has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and the Middle East.