INDIAN forces fought an extended gun battle yesterday with militants who attacked a bus and stormed a police station, a sequence of events that left 10 people dead.

The attackers killed four police officers and three civilians in the pre-dawn attack in Punjab state.

All three of the attackers died in fighting with Indian police backed by soldiers that lasted about 12 hours.

The militants hijacked a car and then fired at a moving bus and a roadside restaurant before attacking a police station near Gurdaspur, a border town in Punjab.

Eight injured people were taken to hospital, seven of them in a serious condition.

Police are investigating whether the militants came from the Indian portion of Kashmir, which borders Punjab, or from Pakistan.

Punjab director-general of police Sumedh Singh Saini said it was difficult to say where the attackers had come from.

“They carried firearms and grenades. They came well equipped and carried two GPS systems,” he told reporters.