Taliban gunmen have surrounded a police compound in the volatile southern province of Helmand after killing 19 policemen and seven soldiers in an ongoing siege, FOX News quoted a senior police officer as saying on Monday from inside the compound.

Napas Khan, the police chief in the Naw Zad district, said that the insurgents had advanced to within 20 meters of the compound after seizing police vehicles and weapons and blocking all roads out of Naw Zad.

"We need an immediate response from the government," Khan said.

He said the attack started at before dawn on Monday when the insurgents overran multiple police checkpoints across the district.

"They destroyed or captured most of our checkpoints and now they have reached our police headquarters," Khan said.

"They are mostly firing at us from the hills overlooking our compound."