Two men arrested after a gun battle in the Pakistani city of Karachi on Thursday have told interrogators their names and given their nationalities as Egyptian and Yemeni, police sources say.

The two al-Qaeda suspects - Egyptian Abu Amar and Yemeni Abu Hamza - were detained after a raid by Pakistani police and FBI agents.

Interrogators are trying to check whether the names are genuine.

The men are still in Pakistani custody and have not been handed over to the United States.

Pakistan has arrested more than 400 al-Qaeda suspects since the start of the American-led campaign against the movement.

Most of them have been handed over to the US.

Hunted

Thursday's raid was carried out in the Gulshan-e-Maimar district on the outskirts of Karachi.

The men threw at least three hand grenades and fired automatic weapons at the security forces during the raid, but none was injured.

Karachi has seen violent support for the Taleban

The pair surrendered after the anti-terrorist police and paramilitary rangers returned several dozen rounds of automatic fire.

At least one man in the house escaped, reportedly with gunshot wounds, and was still being hunted on Friday.

FBI help

Also arrested was a former international hockey player, Shahid Ali Khan, and six family members who lived in the bottom half of the two-storey house.

They were all released late on Thursday.

Al-Qaeda suspect Ramzi Binalshibh was captured in Karachi

BBC correspondent in Islamabad, Zaffar Abbas, says Karachi is one of the few places where al-Qaeda and Taleban members are believed to have hidden since the start of the US-led military campaign in Afghanistan more than a year ago.

In September, several Arab nationals were arrested after a fierce gun battle.

One was later identified as a key al-Qaeda suspect, Ramzi Binalshibh, who was handed over to the United States.

Since then, Pakistani authorities have stepped up the search-and-arrest campaign.

With the help of the FBI, they have detained more than 20 Pakistani and Arab nationals on suspicion of having links with al-Qaeda.

The biggest catch so far was the arrest in March of al-Qaeda's suspected financier, Abu Zubaydah, who was taken into custody in the central city of Faisalabad.