Kandahar's police chief has been killed alongside eight other officers in a gunbattle with Afghan special forces.

Soldiers are said to have entered the prosector's office in Kandahar city and forcibly removed an unidentified prisoner.

Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council and a brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, said a gunbattle then erupted with police.

He said: "The police chief for Kandahar, the head of the city's criminal department and seven other police were killed in the clash."

No information about the prisoner's identity or whether he was taken away by the soldiers was immediately available. There was also no indication of any casualties among the soldiers.

Foreign troops were not involved but a spokesman for Nato-led forces in Afghanistan said they are looking into the incident.

Senior US military commanders have said violence in Afghanistan has reached its highest level since the Taliban were ousted after an allied invasion in 2001.

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