A suicide bomber and a group of gunmen carried out two deadly attacks Thursday targeting police in Pakistan's largest city.

Police say three people died and another 13 were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a vehicle carrying a district police chief. The chief – Malir district Chief Rao Anwar – escaped unharmed.

Bomb disposal officials estimate that four kilograms of explosives caused the blast. The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Elsewhere in Karachi, unidentified gunmen attacked a police patrol, killing three officers. A doctor at Karachi's Jinnah Hospital said the dead included one sub-inspector and two constables.

Karachi is Pakistan's commercial capital with a population of about 18 million. Sectarian violence has been blamed for the deaths of hundreds of people there in recent years.

Officials blame many of the killings on ethnic gangs linked to rival political factions such as the majority Urdu-speaking MQM and the Awami National Party of Pashtun migrants. Islamist militants — including Pakistan's domestic Taliban movement — also is active in Karachi.