Several Taliban fighters have stormed into Kandahar airport, where they are engaged in an ongoing firefight, an Afghan police official told Al Jazeera.

Simultaneously, Taliban forces attacked nearby residential blocks housing government employees on Tuesday night and the joint Afghan-NATO military base at the airport, officials said.

Nearby shops in the southern Afghan city have also been torched.

There are a number of casualties, but officials have not yet released official details.

"Several insurgents (have) taken up position inside a school and are firing at the airport," Sameem Khpalwak, a spokesman for the local governor, told Reuters.

An Afghan army official told Al Jazeera that there is an unknown number of attackers engaged with security forces at the airport.

The official said the homes of Afghan army officials were among those attacked.

A man who is trapped in a building near the airport told Al Jazeera that residents have been told to remain inside and take cover, in case Afghan or US-NATO forces mistook them for Taliban forces.

The Kandahar provincial governor's spokesman confirmed the incident and has told media that there are at least three attackers at the airport.

Al Jazeera's Qais Azimy, reporting from Kabul, sait Tuesday night's incident was the second major Taliban attack in Kandahar within the past 24 hours.

On Monday night, Taliban forces stormed a Kandahar police station and engaged in a lengthy firefight in which three police officers and two of the attackers were killed, Azimy said.

A Taliban spokesman claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Al Jazeera