A massive suicide Bomb Attack in Afghanistan's capital has killed 90 people and wounded over 400, according to the Afghan government's media centre.
Basir Mujahid, a city police spokesman, said the explosives were hidden in a sewage truck.
At least 11 US citizens were injured, who were contractors assigned to the US embassy, officials reported.
A statement from the Afghan Ulema Council, the country’s top religious body condemned the bombing saying that “carrying out such attacks in the holy month of Ramadan is completely against humanity.”
Mohammad Hassan, a 21-year-old bank worker wounded in the explosion said: "It felt like an earthquake."
Deadly terror attack
The powerful blast shattered windows and blew doors off their hinges in buildings many hundreds of metres away.
Dense black plumes of smoke were spiralling into the sky. Eyewitnesses stated seeing bodies littering the scene of destruction. Afghanistan’s Ministry of the Interior has sent out an urgent appeal for blood donations.
Another Afghan who was wounded, Nabib Ahmad, 27, said there was widespread damage and chaos. "I couldn't think clearly, there was a mess everywhere," he told Reuters.
Distraught relatives gathered at the Wazir Akbar Khan hospital where ambulances ferried in the wounded.
The attack in Zambaq Square, close to several diplomatic and government facilities, seriously damaged the German and French Embassies in Kabul. France’s foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian released a statement that French authorities did not have information on possible French casualties but were still checking.
Le Drian condemned the “terrorist attack” in a country that “is paying a heavy toll on terrorism again.” He added that “France stands by Afghanistan in the fight against terrorism.”
Other government buildings affected by the blast included the embassies of Japan, Turkey, India, China, the UK and Pakistan, according to AP.
BBC driver and journalists injured
Mohammed Nazir, an Afghan driver for the BBC was killed and four BBC journalists wounded as they drove towards their Kabul bureau.
“This is a devastating loss to the BBC and to Mohammed Nazir's friends and family. We are doing all we can to support them and the rest of the team in Kabul,” the British broadcaster said.
Afghan media reported that Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. The fundamentalist terror group has previously claimed responsibility for several other bombings in Kabul, including a deadly blast aimed at an armoured NATO convoy that killed at least eight people and wounded 28 on 3rd May.
The Afghan Taliban denied any involvement in the explosion, one of the deadliest ever to hit Kabul. Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Taliban, said the bomb blast had “nothing to do with the Mujahedeen of Islamic Emirate.”
