More than 30 people are dead and 90 injured after an explosion tore through a Shia mosque during Friday prayers in the Afghan city of Kandahar.
Pictures from inside the Bibi Fatima mosque show shattered windows and bodies lying on the ground and other worshippers trying to help.
The explosion’s cause is not yet clear but a suicide bombing is suspected.
Witnesses said there were three blasts – one at the main door, another where worshippers wash, and a third.
Friday prayers are the busiest congregation of the week, and the mosque was full of people at the time. At least 15 ambulances were at the scene afterwards, an AFP journalist said.
Taliban special forces have secured the site and have asked people to donate blood to help the victims, Reuters reports.
BBC Afghanistan correspondent Secunder Kermani says that IS-K, a local branch of the Islamic State Group, is expected to say it was behind the attack.
Kandahar is Afghanistan’s second largest city and the spiritual birthplace of the Taliban, so an attack in the city by IS-K, which is extremely hostile towards the Taliban, would be significant.
گزارش‌ها از قندهار، در جنوب افغانستان حاکی است که در نتیجه یک انفجار در یک مسجد شیعیان در این ولایت دست کم ۱۶ نفر کشته و ۳۲ نفر دیگر زخمی شده‌اند.
گفته شده که این انفجار در مسجد “امام بارگاه” در شهر قندهار رخ داده است.
عامل این انفجار نیز هنوز مشخص نشده است ولی گمان می‌رود که یک حمله انتحاری بوده است.
یک پزشک در محل به بی‌بی‌سی گفت که مجروحان این رویداد به شفاخانه/بیمارستان میروس منتقل شده‌اند.
به گزارش رسانه‌ها سخنگوی وزارت داخله طالبان گفته برای تحقیقات بیشتر این رویداد یک نیوری ویژه به محل رویداد اعزام شده است.