Multiple blasts targeting a school in Kabul on Saturday killed at least 50 people and injured dozens more, mostly female students, officials said.
A senior interior ministry official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that most of the casualties were students coming out of the Sayed ul Shuhada school.
TV channels’ footages showed chaos outside the school, with books and school bags strewn across a bloodstained road, and residents rushing to help victims.
Ministry spokesman Tareq Arian told reporters a car bomb detonated in front of the Sayed Al-Shuhada School on Saturday, and when the students rushed out in panic two more bombs exploded. He said more than 100 people were wounded, adding that the majority of victims were female students.
No group has so far taken the responsibility for the attack, but Afghan officials including President Ashraf Ghani have blamed the Taliban. “The Taliban are behind this attack on education institutions in the past,” said Arian.
The explosions rocked the west Kabul district of Dasht-e-Barchi, a regular target of Sunni Islamist militants as residents were out shopping ahead of next week’s Eid-al-Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month of fasting.
