At least 10 people were killed in an attack by unknown gunmen on Nangarhar's education department in Jalalabad city on Wednesday, officials confirmed.

Officials confirmed shortly after 1pm that the situation had been brought under control but that at least 10 people were dead.

They were not immediately able to confirm how many gunmen had been involved in the attack. 

Eyewitnesses said earlier up to 50 people had been trapped inside the compound. Officials wee also not able to confirm this.  

The attack started at about 9:30am local time in PD5 of Jalalabad city, after an unknown number of gunmen stormed the department and opened fire, a spokesman for the provincial governor, Attaullah Khoghyani confirmed.

In the meantime, Asif Shinwari, a spokesman for the Nangarhar education directorate, who was not in the building at the time of the attack, confirmed that one watchman has been killed in the shooting.

Security forces arrived at the scene soon after the attack was launched and cordoned off the area.

Special Forces were also seen arriving in the area not long after the attack started, and a number of ambulances have been on stand by for at least three hours.  

This is the third major attack in less than two weeks in Jalalabad, following an explosion that killed a group of Afghan Sikhs on July 1 and a second that killed at least 12 people on Tuesday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s attack but both of the other attacks in the city this month were claimed by Daesh.