Police officials in northwestern Pakistan say they have killed two militants disguised in burqas who attacked a police station on the border with the North Waziristan tribal agency.

District Police Chief Waqar Khan tells VOA that two attackers armed with suicide vests and guns stormed the building in Bannu Monday and tried to take hostages. There were eight police officers, including a senior official, in the building at the time.

Khan says that after several hours of intense gunfire, additional police and troops surrounded the building and killed both attackers. Three police officers were wounded.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, and authorities have detained four members of the police suspected of having links with the group.

In April, about 150 Taliban militants, armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades, stormed a prison in Bannu and freed nearly 400 prisoners.

Bannu borders Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal agency, a known hub of Taliban and al-Qaida extremists that lies along the Afghan border.