An explosion in a construction organisation's warehouse in eastern Afghanistan has killed at least 25 people and wounded around 80, officials said today.
It was too early to determine the exact cause of the blast, which tore through an explosives-packed warehouse near the main eastern city of Jalalabad, senior spokesman Mr Omar Samad said.
"It could be an act of sabotage, but it appears possible that explosive material was being stored in the warehouse," he added. "The exact cause of the explosion is still unknown... At this point it's too early to say."
The warehouse belonged to the non-government Afghan Construction and Logistics Unit (ACLU) near Darunta dam just west Jalalabad.
"It looks like a suicide car bomb in the warehouse," a local military spokesman said, adding that some 50 houses had also been damaged by the force of the blast. "It appeared the goal was to destroy the electricity dam."
But Mr Mohammad Asif Qaimzada, the deputy governor of Nangarhar province, of which Jalalabad is the capital, ruled out sabotage as the cause, the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported.
"There is no possibility of any act of terrorism, it was caused by explosive material in the store (of ACLU) which it uses in its road construction projects," he said.
Jalalabad was the stronghold of slain Afghan vice president Mr Haji Qadir, who was gunned down by still-unidentified assassins in a daylight attack as he left his office in the capital Kabul on July 6th.
In April defence minister Mr Mohammad Qasim Fahim escaped unharmed after bombers launched an assassination attempt as he was driving to Qadir's headquarters in the centre of Jalalabad.
AFP