Three dead in blast at Kabul military hospital

KABUL: Three people have been killed in a major explosion at the main Afghan military hospital in Kabul on Saturday, the war-torn country's defence ministry said.

Officials said there had been a blast in a tent at the hospital.

"Three people have been martyred and a number of others have been wounded," the ministry press office said, adding that the casualties included civilians and military personnel.

Afghanistan's Tolo television station said the blast was caused by a suicide attack and that a second attacker was still in the building. Tolo reported the blast took place as medical students were having lunch.

A Western military source also said there had been shooting inside the compound. The claim could not be independently verified.

A doctor inside the hospital, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said people in the building he was in within the compound had been shut into one room as searches go on to see if other attackers were still on the loose.

Eyewitness Mohammad Hakim, who has a cart selling fruit nearby, described what had happened.

"It was a big explosion, I fell to the ground," he said. "The police arrived late at the scene, half an hour after the explosion took place."

The roads to the hospital were blocked and Afghan security forces including the spy agency's quick reaction forces cordoned off the facility, while police and soldiers were also on the scene.

Relatives of patients inside the hospital gathered nearby after trying but failing to find out if their family members are safe, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

Two rockets were fired overnight into Kabul city landing in an empty plot, causing no damage or casualties, interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary told AFP.

Afghan forces are set to take increasing responsibility for security as foreign troops pull back. The worst fighting in Afghanistan usually comes in spring and summer and the fighting season is starting to get under way.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011