KABUL, Afghanistan — A truck bombing near the Afghan presidential palace early Wednesday killed at least 80 people and wounded hundreds, officials said. The huge explosion caused panic in much of central Kabul, shattering windows as far as a mile away.
The death toll seemed certain to rise. Nearly two hours after the blast near Zanbaq Square, a crowded area in the Afghan capital that leads to the presidential palace as well as major foreign embassies, plumes of smoke were still rising from the scene.
Kabul’s police chief, Gen. Hassan Shah Frogh, said the explosives had been in a tanker truck used to empty septic wells. The bomb was detonated near Zanbaq Square just as the street turns toward the German Embassy, he said.
“The blast was so huge that it dug a big crater as deep as four meters,” or 13 feet, General Frogh said.
A Western official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said that the German Embassy had been damaged and that some of the staff had been temporarily evacuated.
But there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, and it was not clear whether the embassy had been specifically targeted.
Wahidullah Majrooh, a spokesman for the Health Ministry, said 80 dead bodies and 350 wounded people had been brought to hospitals.
Pictures from the scene showed smoke and chaos, with bloodied people lying around as emergency personnel tried to evacuate victims. There was a heavy security presence, including forces from the United States-led coalition, and helicopters circled overhead. Dozens of people waited outside the large security cordon for news of their loved ones.
Shopkeepers as far as a mile from the scene were seen sweeping glass from shattered windows, as parents arrived to escort panicking children home from school.
“There was a big tremble, and then we heard a massive explosion,” said Ramin Sangar, a cameraman at a television channel near the site of the explosion, as he was loaded into an ambulance. “All the windows are broken. Our studios collapsed.”
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