An American woman was shot in Karachi, Pakistan, on Thursday by attackers who claimed to be members of the Islamic State, police said.

The suspects were on motorcycles, and shot the woman in her car as she left the Jinnah Medical and Dental College, where she serves as a faculty member and administrator. Doctors say she is in "serious" condition but "out of danger." The attackers dropped leaflets in English and Urdu that were signed by "the Lions of of Daulah Al-Islamiyyah [Islamic State], the Falcons of our Caliph." The message stated that "God willing, we will burn America," and said the shooting was in retaliation for the killing of five of their fellow militants in Karachi.

"This is the first time I have seen such an attack being clearly claimed by Islamic State in Karachi," Raja Umar Khattab, chief of the Karachi police's counterterrorism department, told The Wall Street Journal. "It's a new development, but the militants involved here have probably broken away" from other groups in Pakistan, he added.