Kabul  - A standoff between Afghan security forces and suspected Taliban gunmen ended Wednesday after three fighters who had been holed up in a bank in central Kabul were killed.

The militants who were driving a small car stormed inside a bank in the Jadeh Maiwand neighbourhood in the Afghan capital after apparently being chased by police, witnesses said.

"There was sudden shooting and when I came out of the shop I saw several men entering the bank," local shopkeeper Haji Dilbar told the German Press Agency dpa.

A gunbattle broke out between the two sides as police surrounded the building, while sporadic blasts caused by the Taliban's hand grenades could also be heard.

"We killed all the three Taliban attackers, and now the building is in our control," Abdul Qafaar Sayedzada, head the Kabul city police's department of criminal investigations, said.

Three policemen were also wounded in the firefight, he said, adding that police found several hand grenades and explosives attached to dead militants' vests.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that five of their fighters entered Kabul Wednesday morning, shooting three police rangers with rocket propelled grenades and killing more than 20 police.

"Our forces are now stationed in a bank in the heart of the city and they are fighting with police forces," he said in a press statement.

The incident happened amid tight security in the capital a day before Afghans go to the polls to directly elect a president for only the second time in their history.

Taliban have threatened to disrupt the polls, raising concerns in the war-weary south-central Asian country that the elections would be overshadowed by violence.

On Tuesday a suicide bomber targeted NATO forces in the eastern part of Kabul, killing 10 people including seven civilians, two UN workers and a NATO soldier, and wounding more than 50 others.

Also on Tuesday another bomber attacked an army checkpoint in the southern province of Uruzgan, killing five people. (dpa)