Kabul blast: At least 40 dead, 140 injured in explosion; Taliban claims responsibility for attack

Kabul blast: The bomb went off near a police checkpoint close to foreign embassies and government buildings killing 17 and injuring several.

By: Express Web Desk | New Delhi | Updated: January 27, 2018 4:45 pm

Kabul blast: People help carry an injured man to the hospital following a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday Jan. 27, 2018. The Public Health Ministry says over a dozen were killed, and over 100 wounded in a suicide car bombing in downtown Kabul. (AP Photo/ Rahmat Gul)

At least 40 people were killed and 140 injured after an ambulance packed with explosives blew up in a crowded area near a police checkpoint close to foreign embassies and official government buildings on Saturday, Reuters reported. The attacker struck near the old interior ministry building, interior ministry deputy spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP.

The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast – one of the biggest since a truck bomb ripped through the Afghan capital’s diplomatic quarter on May 31 last year – led to chaotic scenes as panic-stricken people fled the area where several high-profile organisations, including the European Union, have offices.

Member of Parliament Mirwais Yasini, who witnessed the blast, recounted that an ambulance neared the police checkpoint and exploded. He said he saw ‘a number of people lying on the ground’. A spokesperson from the public health ministry said several people had been killed and many wounded in the blast.