Gunmen disguised as police officers have attacked a television station in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing at least two people, police say.

The attackers lobbed grenades before storming the Shamshad TV building.

Afghan security forces have ended the raid and the television station has resumed broadcasting.

So-called Islamic State (IS) said it had carried out the attack. Kabul has been targeted repeatedly in recent months by the Taliban and IS. A security guard has been confirmed killed and 20 people are being treated in hospital.

“This is an attack on freedom of media but they cannot silence us,” the station’s news director Abid Ehsas told another outlet, Tolo News. Special forces had to blast their way through a concrete wall protecting the station to enter the site.

Shamshad TV broadcasts a wide variety of programmes including news and current affairs in the Pashto language.

The Threat To Journalists

Afghanistan is one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists and media workers.

The first six months of 2017 saw a surge in violence against journalists, with local monitor the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee recording 73 cases, an increase of 35% in comparison to the same period in 2016.

In May two media workers, including a BBC driver, were killed in a massive bomb attack in Kabul. The offices of Afghan broadcaster 1TV were also damaged. Also in May, IS targeted the Afghan state television building in the city of Jalalabad, killing six people.

Last year seven members of staff from the private Tolo television station were killed in a Taliban suicide bombing in Kabul.