Tehran, Oct 1 (IANS): At least 19 people were killed in the "terrorist" attack on a police station in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan, the provincial governor Hossein Modarres Khiabani has said.

On Friday, "some rioters who belong to terrorist and separatist groups, and whose identities are known, attacked a police station in the guise of Friday prayers, and threw stones and flammable materials, and shot in order to seize" the police station, the official IRNA news agency quoted Modarres Khiabani as saying, reports Xinhua news agency.

In this incident in the provincial capital Zahedan, 19 people lost their lives and 20 others were injured, including members of the police forces, he said.

The attackers also set fire to other public property including chain stores, and vandalised banks and government centers, he noted.

The military and police force gave a decisive response to the attackers and the confrontation continued until the arrest of all of them, he said, adding that his province now is calm.

Following the attack on the police station, an armed group gathered near a mosque and started shooting, and the commander of the intelligence unit of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps in Sistan and Baluchestan Ali Mousavi has been killed in clashes, Press TV reported.