A suicide car bombing followed by an armed assault killed at least two people and wounded many more outside police headquarters in the port city of Chabahar in restive southeastern Iran on Thursday.

Chabahar lies in Sistan-Baluchistan province which has long been a flashpoint, with Pakistan-based Baluchi separatists and Sunni Muslim extremists carrying out cross-border attacks targeting the Shiite authorities.

"This terrorist act led to the martyrdom of two members of the police force," the province's deputy governor in charge of security, Mohammad Hadi Marashi, told state television.

Immediately after the bomber detonated the car bomb, gunmen attempted to storm the police headquarters but were killed by security forces, Iranian media reported.

Chabahar city governor Rahmdel Bameri said many people were also wounded in the 10 am (0630 GMT) attack.

"The explosion was very strong and broke the glass of many buildings close by," Bameri told state television.

Many nearby shop owners and civilian passers-by, including women and children, were seriously wounded, he added.

Chabahar lies some 100 kilometres (60 miles) west of the Pakistan border and is home to a large, mainly Sunni Muslim ethnic Baluchi community which straddles the two countries.

Immediately after the bomber detonated the car bomb, gunmen attempted to storm the police headquarters but were killed by security forces, Iranian media reported.

The number of assailants was not immediately clear.

"The terrorists tried to enter Chabahar police headquarters but they were prevented by the guards and they detonated the car bomb," Marashi said without elaborating on how many assailants took part.

(AFP)