The bodies of three Pakistanis were found with throats cut and hands and feet tied together after a bomb blast on Thursday at the office of the honorary consul general to Macedonia in Karachi, the police said.

One of the victims was a Christian security guard at the office, another was an unidentified Pakistani woman and the third was an unidentified Pakistani man, they said.

Karachi police chief Kamal Shah was quoted by an agency as saying that the bomb was powerful and the attack "appeared to be an act of terrorism".

No suspects had yet been identified, he added.

Pakistan has seen a slew of attacks against Western and Christian targets in the wake of the US-led war on terrorism.

The office of the honorary consul, Bilal Qureshi, is in the city's upmarket Defence District.

Qureshi, who is the brother of former acting Pakistani prime minister Moin Qureshi, was in another house at the time of the blast.

The police said preliminary investigations have revealed that the victims were killed before the blast.