Islamabad - A Japanese journalist and his Afghan facilitator were wounded on Friday when their vehicle was fired upon in an apparent kidnap attempt in Pakistan's volatile north-west, police said.

Travelling in a chauffeur-driven car the two were ambushed just over a kilometre outside Peshawar city, the capital of North West Frontier Province.

The driver manoeuvred the car and drove to the closet Hayatabad police station, said Banaras Khan, a local police officer.

"A bullet hit the Japanese journalist in the leg but he was in stable condition and was transported to Islamabad," Khan said without identifying the wounded man.

According to the officer, the Afghan was being treated in a hospital in Peshawar.

The abduction bid came a day after gunmen kidnapped an Iranian diplomat, Heshmatollah Attarzadeh, after killing his Pakistani guard in Hayatabad. Attarzadeh, a commercial attache to Iranian consulate, is still missing.

Violence has surged in Peshawar, which is located adjacent to the lawless tribal regions near the Afghan border, with authorities attributing it to the security operations being carried out by the government forces against Islamist militants. (dpa)