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At least 29 dead as car bomb hits bank in Afghanistan
At least 29 people have been killed and 60 wounded in a car bomb blast outside a bank in the southern Afghan province of Helmand
Sixty wounded people were rushed to hospital after the bombing at New Kabul Bank which upturned vehicles, left the area littered with charred debris, and sent a plume of smoke into the sky
A car bomb exploded outside a bank in Lashkar Gah, capital of the southern Afghan province of Helmand on Thursday, killing at least 29 and wounding 60 civilians and members of the security forces waiting to collect their pay, officials said.
The bomb at New Kabul Bank tore through a queue of civilians and government employees who had lined up outside the bank to collect their salaries ahead of the Eid holidays marking the end of Ramadan. The bombing upturned vehicles, left the area littered with charred debris, and sent a plume of smoke into the sky.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but insurgent groups, including the Taliban, have in the past targeted banks where police, soldiers and other government employees collect their pay.
Helmand, one of the world's major centres of opium growing, and a traditional heartland of the Taliban, has been under particularly heavy pressure with large parts of the province in the hands of the insurgents.
The incident is the latest in a series that has underlined a steadily worsening security situation across Afghanistan, almost three years after international troops ended their main combat mission in 2014.
In a similar attack in February, at least six people were killed when a Taliban bomber rammed an explosives-laden car into Afghan soldiers who had queued outside a bank in Lashkar Gah to collect their salaries.
