Three Chinese workers were killed Sunday in northwestern Pakistan, police said.

Police officer Abdul Karim said that it was a robbery attempt.

But one witness said that attackers with face covered were shouting religious slogans when they opened fire on four Chinese nationals in a three-wheel auto-rickshaw factory at Khazana, a town some eight kilometers from Peshawar, the capital city of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

The fourth Chinese were seriously wounded. He was later sent to the local Lady Reading hospital.