Scores Killed In Kabul Suicide Attack

At least 40 people are reported to have been killed and dozens more injured following a suicide attack in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

The initial explosion is believed to have been at a Shia cultural centre and was followed by two others that appeared to target those trying to help victims.

The so-called Islamic State group have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish said a number of suicide attackers set off an explosion outside the centre before storming it.

They then set off more 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.

Shia leader Abdul Hussain Ramazandada said witnesses reported at least one suicide bomber sneaking into the event, and sitting among the participants.

He detonated his device, and more explosions followed as people fled.

The cultural centre is located in a Shia-dominated district in the west of the capital.

The Islamic State group said it intended to target Afghanistan's Shia community following an attack on the Iraqi Embassy in Kabul earlier in the year.

Since then, IS has claimed responsibility for at least two attacks on Shia mosques in Kabul, and another in the western city of Herat, killing scores of worshippers.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid denied involvement in Thursday's attack on the cultural centre.

The Islamic State affiliate, made up of Sunni extremists, view Shias as apostates.

Afghan president Ashraf Ghani called the attack a "crime against humanity".

In a statement released by the presidential palace, he said:

"The terrorists have killed our people. The terrorists have attacked our mosques, our holy places and now our cultural centre."

President Ghani called them “attacks against Islam” and "all human values".