Kathmandu - A police officer was killed after an armed group attacked a police station in a remote village in western Nepal, officials said Saturday.

The attackers stormed a police station at Syawlebhan village in Pyuthan district, about 350 kilometres west of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu early Saturday morning.

Chief government district administrator Krishna Shyam Budathoki said the group surrounded the station and shot and killed an officer on sentry duty.

They then stormed the building, assaulting officers and making off with weapons and communication equipment, Budathoki said.

Police were helpless to counter the attack as they did not have enough manpower and weapons, he added.

Police reinforcements were sent to the area to search for the attackers.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the attack. But police say they suspect fringe rebel groups operating in the neighbouring Rolpa district to be behind the attack.

It was the first violent attack against police in the district since Nepal's Maoists gave up armed insurgency in 2006.

Pyuthan district was one of the Maoist strongholds during the decade-long communist insurgency. (dpa)