Car bombing at Afghan school kills 55, injures over 150

PBC News:  Explosions caused by a car bomb and mortars outside a school in the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday killed at least 55 people and wounded over 150, mostly female students, officials said, in an attack President Ashraf Ghani blamed on Taliban insurgents.

A senior security official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that most of the casualties were students coming out of the Sayed ul Shuhada school, and many were badly wounded in hospital, reports Reuters.

Footage on TV channel ToloNews showed chaotic scenes, with books and school bags strewn across a bloodstained road, and residents rushing to help victims.

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“It was a car bomb blast that occurred in front of the school entrance,” an eyewitness told Reuters, asking not to be named. He said all but seven or eight of the victims were schoolgirls going home after finishing their studies.

At the Sayed ul Shuhada high school, girls and boys study in three shifts, the second of which is for female students, Najiba Arian, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Education, told Reuters. The wounded were mostly female students, she said.

A spokesman for the interior ministry, Tariq Arian, said the death toll was at least 30 with 52 injured.

At a nearby hospital, staff wheeled in injured students while dozens of distressed relatives searched for their sons and daughters, according to a Reuters witness.

“I do not know what country we are in … We want peace and security,” a grieving relative of one of the victims told Reuters.

Kabul has been on high alert since Washington announced plans last month to pull out all U.S. troops by Sept. 11, with Afghan officials saying the Taliban have stepped up attacks across the country following the announcement.

No group has claimed responsibility for Saturday’s attack. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid denied the group was involved and condemned the incident.