Manila  - Nineteen people were killed when communist rebels attacked a logging firm in the southern Philippines, a regional police chief said Friday.

The fighting in a remote village in Lanuza town in Surigao del Sur province, 810 kilometres south of Manila, started Wednesday and lasted until Thursday, Chief Superintendent Lino Calingasan said.

Calingasan said eight soldiers, seven rebels, three security guards of the logging firm and one police officer were killed in the clashes.

Eleven more government troops were wounded in the fighting.

The fighting erupted when heavily armed guerrillas stormed the firm, immediately killing three security guards.

The guerrillas burned logging equipment such as bulldozers and chainsaws and took some of the employees hostage.

Responding security forces were waylaid by a second group of guerrillas after their vehicle hit a landmine while pursuing the attackers.

Calingasan said government forces were greatly outnumbered by the guerrillas.

More troops have been dispatched to the area to conduct military operations against the guerrillas who fled into the mountains after seizing 13 high-powered firearms from the logging firm.

Communist rebels have been fighting the government since the late 1960s, making the movement one of the longest-running leftist insurgencies in Asia. (dpa)