At least seven people were killed and 11 wounded Tuesday by two bomb blasts at a boys’ school in the Afghan capital, with social media showing grisly images from the Hazara Shia neighbourhood.
The number of bomb blasts in the country has significantly declined since the Taliban ousted the US-backed Afghan government in August, but the Islamic State group has claimed several attacks since then.
Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran told AFP that Tuesday’s blasts at the Abdul Rahim Shahid school were caused by improvised explosive devices and left at least seven people killed and 11 wounded.
“These are preliminary figures. We are at the site and waiting for more details,” he said.
Zadran said a third blast had occurred at an English language centre in the same area, but did not specify whether it was caused by an explosive.
Zadran earlier tweeted that three blasts had rocked the school, which is in an area mainly inhabited by the Hazara community and has been previously targeted by the Islamic State group.
Tuesday’s blasts occurred as students were coming out of their morning classes at the school, a witness told AFP.
Grisly images posted on social media networks showed several bodies lying at the gate and compound of the school.
Images showed patches of blood, burnt books and school bags scattered at the premises. Taliban fighters were seen cordoning off the area.
Victims were taken to hospital, but Taliban fighters kept journalists from the premises.The blasts, which occurred in rapid succession, hurt several children and more casualties were feared, according to Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran and the city's Emergency Hospital.
The explosions occurred inside the Abdul Rahim Shaheed High School in the Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood of Kabul and near a second education center several kilometers (miles) away.
Guards in the narrow street leading to the two-story high school said they saw 10 casualties. Inside the school, an Associated Press video journalist saw walls splattered with blood, burned notebooks and children's shoes.
The AP spoke to several private guards in the area but they refused to give their names, fearing repercussions from the Taliban security force cordening off the area.
It appeared a suicide bomber blew himself up inside the sprawling compound, which can house up to 1,000 students, witnesses said. It wasn't immediately clear how many children were in the school at the time of the explosion.
The school is teaching students only until the sixth grade after Afghanistan's hardline Taliban rulers went back on a promise to allow all girls to attend school.
No one has immediately claimed responsibility. The area has been targeted in the past by Afghanistan’s deadly Islamic State affiliate, which reviles Shiite Muslims as heretics.
