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German embassy workers injured, 1 guard killed in Kabul bomb attack

AFP/DPA/The Local
AFP/DPA/The Local - [email protected]
German embassy workers injured, 1 guard killed in Kabul bomb attack
Smoke above where the vehicle bombing took place in Kabul. Photo: Lehtikuva/dpa

The German embassy was massively damaged and workers were injured in a vehicle bomb attack in the Afghan capital on Wednesday morning that has killed at least 80 people.

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In one of the worst attacks in Kabul in recent years, the German embassy was hit hard, with photos of the scene showing dozens of damaged windows on the front side of the building, according to DPA.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel announced that embassy workers were among the hundreds of people injured, and that an Afghan security worker who was guarding the grounds was also killed. Gabriel further confirmed that "all staff are now safe".

"The news from Afghanistan is shocking. I condemn the attack in Kabul, in which dozens of people were injured and killed, in the strongest possible terms," Gabriel said in a statement posted to Twitter.

"Our thoughts are with the victims' families and friends... Such attacks to not change in any way our determination to continue supporting the Afghan Government in further stabilizing the country."

A French minister also confirmed earlier that both the German and French embassies had been impacted by the bomb that ripped through Kabul's strongly fortified diplomatic quarter on Wednesday morning.

"The information that I have at the moment is that there is material damage in the French embassy, there is also material damage in the Germany embassy," European affairs minister Marielle de Sarnez told Europe 1 radio.

At least 80 people were killed and 350 people injured by the vehicle bomb that went off on Wednesday morning in the Afghan capital, a government spokesman told DPA. The German embassy was about 300 metres from the site of the explosion. 

So far no group has taken responsibility for the vehicle bomb. 

Al Jazeera reported that the Taliban has denied involvement.

 

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