Islamabad - Unknown gunmen killed seven police officers in a raid on a police check post in Pakistan's central province of Punjab on Saturday, a security official said.

The attack took place around 03:30 am (2230 GMT Friday) in the Qudrat Abad area of Mianwali district, senior police official Jamaat Ali Shah told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on the phone.

"The attackers first gunned down two policemen guarding the post in and then killed five more policemen sleeping inside the building," Shah said.

Before leaving, they blew up the two-story building with explosives, he said, adding that the bodies of five policemen have been pulled from the rubble.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the strike.

Mianwali is located close to country's North West Frontier Province where Taliban militants have carried out dozens of attacks on law enforcers and political leaders.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and opposition leader Nawaz Sharif, whose Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz heads the provincial government in Punjab, condemned the Mianwali attack. dpa