TEHRAN: At least 10 police officers were killed in a “terrorist attack” in an area of southeastern Iran long plagued by unrest, local media reported on Saturday.

They were killed during an attack on “police vehicles” in Sistan-Baluchistan province’s Taftan county, the Mehr and Tasnim news agencies reported, without saying how it was carried out.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which occurred some 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) southeast of the capital Tehran.

The official IRNA news agency, citing a police statement, reported the death of “10 personnel in two patrol units” in what it called an ambush.

Sistan-Baluchistan borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, and is one of the most impoverished provinces in the Islamic republic.