About 10.51pm Friday a person approached the entrance of the station's secure car park on Cimitiere Street and threw a Molotov cocktail over a wall and into the car park.

The incident was captured on CCTV and Tasmania Police Northern Commander Brett Smith said it was fortunate there weren't any officers in the car park at the time.

"The damage was limited mostly to the singeing and burning of one of the walls," Commander Smith said.

"We believe the device was targeted at two diesel storage tanks which fuel our generator. It landed to the right of the storage tanks and some of the liquid did end up on the tanks but there was no risk or concern because they're relatively safe and secure.

"We don't believe there was any real risk, other than property damage, however had persons have been in that car park close-by they could very well have been killed."

While the Molotov cocktail self-extinguished a short time after it was thrown, Commander Smith said the attack was dangerous and stupid.

"Those types of devices are purely designed to cause death to people, to maim people and to cause significant property damage," he said.

"People that make these devices and do that, put themselves at significant risk of being seriously injured or burned. Things can go wrong, that alone should be a reason not to do it."

Commander Smith said police believed whoever was responsible for the attack was linked to a group of people police had been investigating.

"There's a number of people involved in the illegal distribution of drugs and property, these people have been the subject of intense investigations," Commander Smith said.

"We have taken a very firm approach at attempting to curb their behaviour, we believe this [attack] is some type of response to that.

"We have made a number of arrests in the past and we will continue to do so. This type of act does nothing to deter what we're doing, it makes no sense to me why they think it'll change the way in which we're going."

Commander Smith said the attack had strengthened the resolve of police to continue to support and protect the community.

"We certainly don't fear these people, we're very cautious, we exercise caution all the time and we will increase our security around the police station for the time being but we will come aggressively at these people that have done this.

"We have a team of detectives working...trying to go through the investigation process with a view to apprehending those responsible."

Attacks on police stations were rare and the last one in Launceston occurred about 20 years ago when a police vehicle was firebombed, Commander Smith said.

"We believe that there are a number of people in the community who weren't directly involved [with the incident on Friday night], but know something about it and we ask that those people come forward as well," he said.