ISLAMABAD -- (UPDATE) Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani was not in a motorcade fired on Wednesday in an apparent assassination attempt, security officials told Agence France-Presse.

"The prime minister and his staff were not in the car," interior secretary Kamal Shah said.

Officials said the motorcade been on its way to meet him at the airport.

Gilani's spokesman had earlier said the prime minister was in the car when it was struck by two bullets in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, not far from the capital Islamabad.