Attackers stormed a Shiite Muslim cultural centre in the Afghan capital Thursday (loocal time), setting off multiple bombs and killing at least 41 people and wounding at least 81, authorities said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said an unknown number of suicide attackers set off an explosion outside the centre before carrying out an attack inside. They set off explosive devices in the basement of the building where scores of people had gathered to mark the December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan by the former Soviet Union, he said.
Shiite leader Abdul Hussain Ramazandada said witnesses reported at least one suicide bomber sneaked into the event and was sitting among the participants. He exploded his device and as people fled more explosions occurred.
At nearby Istiqlal Hospital, director Mohammed Sabir Nasib said the emergency room was overwhelmed with the dead and wounded. Additional doctors and nurses were called in to help and at the height of the tragedy more than 50 doctors and nurses were working to save the wounded, most of whom suffered severe burns.
The two-story cultural centre is located in a poor area of the Shiite-dominated Dasht-e-Barchi neighbourhood in the west of the capital. The centre is a simple structure surrounded by sun-dried mud homes where some of Kabul's poorest live.
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