KABUL: A bomb hidden in an ambulance in Kabul has left 95 dead and 158 wounded, but the total may rise further, a health ministry official has said.
The attack took place on Saturday morning, a week after a deadly attack on the Intercontinental Hotel in the city. “It is a massacre,” said Dejan Panic coordinator in Afghanistan for the Italian aid group Emergency, which runs a nearby trauma hospital. The Taliban have since claimed responsibility for the attack.
Mirwais Yasini, a member of parliament who was nearby when the explosion occurred, said the ambulance approached the checkpoint, close to an office of the High Peace Council and several foreign embassies, and blew up.
He said a number of people were lying on the ground.
A plume of grey smoke rose from the blast area in the city centre and buildings hundreds of metres away were shaken by the force of the explosion.
The blast came after heightened security alerts following the Intercontinental Hotel attack. That attack, in which more than 20 people were killed, was also claimed by the Taliban. (Arab News)
