Six killed, 24 wounded in explosions at Shiite school in Kabul

At least six people were killed and 24 wounded by two bomb blasts that struck a boys’ school in a Shiite Hazara neighborhood of the Afghan capital, police and hospital staff say.

The number of attacks in Afghanistan has significantly declined since the Taliban ousted the US-backed government in August, but the jihadist Islamic State group has claimed several since then.

Several bodies were strewn outside the gate of the school in the densely populated Shiite Dasht-e-Barchi neighborhood in Kabul, alongside patches of blood, burnt books and school bags, according to images posted on social media.

“We were leaving school and had just stepped out from the rear gate when the explosion occurred,” Ali Jan, a student who was wounded in the first blast, tells AFP at a hospital.

The second blast took place as rescuers arrived to ferry victims from the first explosion to hospitals.

Outside a hospital treating the wounded, Taliban fighters beat back the families of students who had gathered, slapping or pushing some of them as they searched for information.

Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran tells AFP the attack outside the Abdul Rahim Shahid school was caused by two improvised explosive devices, killing six people.

A grenade was also thrown at a nearby English language center in the same area, wounding one person, he adds. Two hospitals say they are treating 24 wounded patients.