Several injured after blast hits school in Afghanistan’s Kabul

Kabul, Aug 18 (IANS) Several students were seriously injured after a blast outside a private school in western Kabul, Afghanistan, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran confirmed Monday night.

Zadran said relevant teams had arrived at the scene and an investigation into the incident was underway.

According to local media, students were leaving the school when the blast occurred, with most of them being girls.

A witness said around 30 injured people had been taken to a local hospital, Xinhua news agency reported.

Earlier in June, a child was killed and six others sustained injuries after two unexploded device left over from the wars went off in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province, provincial director for information and culture Mullah Abdul Bari Rashid said.

In the first gruesome incident, which occurred in Sangin district on Saturday afternoon after three innocent children found a toy-like object and begun playing with, but the device exploded, killing a child on the spot and injuring two others, the official added.

The second incident, which took place hours later in the same district on the same day, left four children injured, the official confirmed without providing more details.

Afghanistan has been regarded as one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world, as the mines and unexploded devices left over from the past more than four decades of war and civil strife often target people, mostly civilians, including innocent children, in the post-war nation.

On June 2, a teenager was seriously injured after an unexploded device left over from the past wars went off in eastern Afghanistan’s Ghazni province, said a statement of the provincial police office.

The gruesome incident occurred in Gilan district when the ill-fated boy found a toy-like object and began playing with it, but the device exploded, the statement added.

–IANS

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