Blast kills seven at Chinese-run restaurant in Afghan capital

The restaurant is in the commercial Shahr-e-Naw neighbourhood of Kabul

An explosion tore through a Chinese-run restaurant in a hotel in a heavily guarded part of Afghanistan's capital on Monday, killing a Chinese national and six Afghans and injuring several others including a child, officials said.

The restaurant was in the commercial Shahr-e-Naw neighbourhood of Kabul that includes office buildings, shopping complexes and embassies, police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said. The district is considered one of the safest in the city.

The Chinese noodle restaurant was jointly run by a Chinese Muslim, Abdul Majid, his wife, and an Afghan partner, Abdul Jabbar Mahmood, and served the Chinese Muslim community, Zadran said.

One Chinese national, identified as Ayub, and six Afghans were killed in the blast, which occurred near the kitchen, while several others were injured, Zadran added.

Videos shared on social media showed debris scattered on the street outside and smoke spewing from a large hole torn into the front of the restaurant building.

"So far, we have received 20 people at our hospital," Dejan Panic, humanitarian group EMERGENCY’s Country Director in Afghanistan, said in a statement.

"Among the wounded are four women and a child ... Unfortunately, seven people were already dead on arrival."There was no immediate word on the cause of the explosion. Authorities said they were investigating.

The Taliban took control of war-torn Afghanistan in 2021 and said it would restore security, but bomb attacks have continued, many of them claimed by the local arm of the militant Islamic State group.