A nearly 12-hour gunfight between gunmen and security forces at a police station in India's northern state of Punjab has ended, leaving at least nine people dead, police and officials said on Monday.

The unknown attackers, numbering three or four in all, hijacked a car and shot at a bus and a roadside eatery before storming the police station near Gurdaspur, a town near the border to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, senior police officer Dinkar Gupta said.

Seven people, including civilians and policemen, died in the pre-dawn attack, according to officials, while media reports spoke of eight people being hospitalized with their injuries.

Security forces made up of both police and army commandos then staged a siege at the police station in the small town of Dinanagar, finally overcoming the attackers.

There are conflicting reports on how many gunmen were killed, but at least two are said to have died in the fighting.

Pakistan issued a statement condemning the attack and extending condolences

Origin unknown

Police are now investigating whether the militants came from the Indian part of Kashmir, which borders Punjab, or whether they had crossed into India over the nearby border from Pakistan.

Punjab has up to now largely been spared the violence that Kashmir has experienced amid rival claims by both India and Pakistan, between which the state of Jammu and Kashmir is currently divided.

Indian-held Kashmir regularly experiences attacks by rebels who have been fighting since 1989 for an independent Kashmir or for it to join with Pakistan.

tj/kms (AP, Reuters)