Amman: Unidentified gunmen on Sunday attacked a police station and patrols in southern Jordan killing five people and wounding nine others including police, a security source said.

The attack took place in Karak, a city and tourist destination known for one of the biggest Crusader castles in the region, located around 120 kilometres south of the capital Amman.

“Five people were killed and nine others wounded, including policemen, when unknown gunmen attacked a police station and some patrols in Karak,” the source said on condition of anonymity, adding that police were hunting the gunmen and reinforcements were sent.

A Canadian female tourist was among the killed, a security source said.

Police said the attackers were being pursued in an ancient castle in the mountainous city where some of the assailants had taken cover after shooting at a nearby police station.

A militant attack was not ruled out, the security sources said. There was no immediate comment from the authorities.

Several incidents over the past year have jolted the Arab kingdom, which has been relatively unscathed by the uprisings, civil wars and Islamist militancy that have swept the Middle East since 2011.

Jordan is among a few Arab states that have taken part in a US-led air campaign against Daesh militants holding territory in Syria. But many Jordanians oppose their country’s involvement, saying it has caused violent deaths of fellow Muslims and raised security threats inside Jordan.

Officials worry about radical Islam’s growing profile in Jordan and support in impoverished areas for militant groups.

Jordan has seen spillover from the conflicts in Iraq and Syria in the past.

In December 2005, suicide attacks on three Amman hotels claimed by Daesh’s predecessor Al Qaida in Iraq killed 60 people and wounded dozens.

In 2010, three Jordanians were sentenced to prison terms of between three years and life for plotting to kill intelligence officers in the camp, a court official said at the time.

One of its pilots was captured by the terrorists when his plane went down in Syria in December 2014. In February 2015, Daesh released gruesome footage of Muath Al Kassasbeh being burned alive in a cage.

His murder prompted Jordan to extend its air strikes against Daesh to Iraq, where it is the only Arab coalition member participating in the bombing campaign.

In November, a Jordanian soldier shot dead three American Army Special Forces soldiers at a military base.

They were said to be part of a CIA programme to train moderate Syrian fighters.

They were killed at an entry control point to Prince Faisal Air Base near Jafr, in the southern desert about 150 miles south of the capital, Amman, according to the officials.

In June, five Jordanian intelligence agents were killed in a “terrorist attack” on their office in a Palestinian refugee camp north of the capital Amman.