At least 24 people have been killed and 42 others wounded in what was described as a suicide car-bomb attack on a bus carrying government workers in the capital, Kabul.
Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish told the AFP news agency that the blast occurred around 7 a.m. on July 24 in the western part of the capital and "hit a bus carrying employees of the Ministry of Mines during rush hour."
Casualty figures for the attack remained unclear hours after the incident. Earlier reports from the Health and Interior ministries put the casualty toll at anywhere between eight to 24 dead and 10 to 40 wounded.
Officials said the bomber also died in the attack. Witnesses said the attacker appeared to have rammed into a bus.
Danish said the bus was badly burned. He could not confirm if the occupants were all government employees.
"Right now, all we know is that they were all civilians," he told the Associated Press.
Witnesses said shattered glass from nearby buildings was scattered over the roadway after the blast.
Danish said the blast occurred in Police District No. 3 in western Kabul.
A Health Ministry spokesman told the dpa news agency that the blast occurred near the residence of Mohammad Mohaqiq, the deputy to Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. A spokesman for Mohaqiq said he was not injured.
The spokesman, Abdul Wahab Azizi, said a bus carrying passengers was destroyed in the blast.
The neighborhood is also home to many Hazaras, a Shi'ite ethnic minority in predominantly Sunni Afghanistan.
Members of the group have been targeted by the Taliban and other Sunni extremists in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan.
No group has immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
