In a brazen assault, four heavily-armed suicide attackers on Friday stormed a Christian colony, opening indiscriminate fire that left one person dead and several others injured before the terrorists were gunned down by security forces in this northwestern Pakistani city.

Authorities "promptly responded" and all four attackers were dead, army spokesman Lt. General Asim Bajwa said in a message on social network Twitter.

In a separate statement, the military's information wing said one security guard of the Christian residential area was killed at the start of the attack, at 5:30 a.m.

The Pakistani Taliban faction Jamaat-ur-Ahrar has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a Christian neighbourhood in northwestern Pakistan where at least one security guard was killed.

Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said there were "several deaths" in the attack on the neighbourhood near Warsak Dam, in the Khyber tribal region, 20 km (12 miles) northwest of the city of Peshawar.

Additional contingents of security forces, including police, Frontier Corps and Pakistan Army commandos have been deployed to the area and an operation is ongoing, the daily reported.

The area has been cordoned off.

The colony lies near the Pak-Afghan border and the Warsak Dam. There are reportedly 25 to 30 houses of Christian community located in the vicinity.

(Developing story)