PESHAWAR: Gunmen attacked a police checkpoint in northwest Pakistan at dawn on Friday, killing four policemen before speeding away in a getaway vehicle, police said.

“Four policemen were killed on the spot. They were taking shelter inside the check post when rain started. One injured is still unconscious,”

The attackers sprayed bullets at policemen sheltering from rain inside a check post building in Ghazi Kot town in the mountainous Mansehra district.

Zulfiqar Jadoon, a police official told AFP by telephone from the scene.

“This is a clear act of terrorism,” Jadoon said. The gunmen arrived in a vehicle and fled after the attack, he said.

An intelligence official confirmed the incident and blamed “miscreants”, a term widely used by Pakistani officials in reference to Taliban and other militant networks.

A wave of suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan has killed more than 3,300 people since 2007. Blame has fallen on Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants bitterly opposed to the country’s alliance with the United States.