A rogue policeman drugged and then shot dead 10 of his colleagues in southern Afghanistan early Tuesday, officials said, the second insider attack on police in just over a week.

A rogue policeman drugged and then shot dead 10 of his colleagues in southern Afghanistan early Tuesday, officials said, the second insider attack on police in just over a week.

The Taliban infiltrator then stole their weapons and fled the police outpost in the Chinarto district of volatile Uruzgan province, authorities said.

"Our investigation shows that this policeman collaborated with the Taliban, drugged his colleagues and killed them when they were unconscious," Dost Mohammad Nayab, the spokesman for Uruzgan's governor, told AFP.

Deputy provincial police chief Rahimullah Khan confirmed the account and said an operation had been launched to track down the killer.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, giving a different account, said nine policemen were killed after the militants captured the police outpost in Chinarto.

On January 17 nine Afghan policemen were shot dead in Uruzgan by four rogue colleagues said to be Taliban infiltrators.