People carry an injured man after a bomb exploded in Kabul's diplomatic district, in Afghanistan on Wednesday. Credit:AP "I felt like it was an earthquake, and after that I do not know what happened," said Mohammed Hassan, 21, who was attending a training program at the Azizi Bank, half a block from the blast, and suffered cuts on his head and arms. "All the staff around me, everyone, was injured." He said he was brought to the hospital by an Afghan army ranger truck. The Australian Embassy in Kabul was put into lockdown. News of the blast quickly reached Parliament House in Canberra, where the secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Frances Adamson, rushed out of a Senate estimates hearing to be briefed on the incident. Australia does not make public the location of its embassy in Kabul for security reasons. Ms Adamson returned to the estimates hearing and said Australia's diplomatic mission was in lockdown but she believed all staff were safe. "It was a car bomb near the German embassy, but there are several other important compounds and offices near there too. It is hard to say what the exact target is," Basir Mujahid, a spokesman for Kabul police, said.

An injured woman is seen after the attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. Credit:AP The dead and wounded were almost all Afghan civilians and security forces: policemen, bank clerks, cart pullers, telephone company workers. The dead included at least five women and an Afghan driver for the BBC. Although many foreign offices are located nearby - many surrounded by high blast walls - there were no reports of foreigners among the casualties. But some workers in diplomatic compounds, including those of Japan and Germany, were among the injured. The explosion on Wednesday caused extensive carnage and damage. Credit:AP At least 11 US citizens working as contractors also were injured, a State Department spokesman said.

The Afghan Taliban denied any role in the bombing, which was followed by a second smaller blast in another part of the city. The Taliban spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, did not speculate on which group could have carried out the attack but said it should "become clear at a later stage." The suicide truck bomb hit the outside of the highly secure diplomatic area of Kabul killing scores of people. Credit:AP Security agencies had warned that both Taliban insurgents and regional affiliates of the Islamic State were planning to attack high-profile targets in the city in the early part of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that began last week. Many injured survivors were cut by shards of glass from storefronts, offices and foreign compounds - as far away as several miles from the blast site. By midmorning, many were limping or being wheeled out of local hospitals, with their clothes covered in blood and their heads, arms or feet wrapped in bandages. Nearby, distraught families squatted around bloody body bags, guarding them in patches of shade.

There were muffled, choking sounds of men weeping. Most of the dead had been seared by the blast; some were wrapped in cloth but others were half-naked and dripping blood. The Afghan ministry of Public Health placed the death toll at 80 and the injury count at 463. "What will I tell his children?" a sobbing man said into a cellphone as he knelt beside a bag containing the remains of his brother, a guard in a building near the explosion. "Look, that one is a woman. Shame, shame," said an elderly man, pointing to a stretcher with a slender body wrapped in cloth, and a hank of long hair dangling outside. The government of President Ashraf Ghani issued a statement condemning the twin blasts as "heinous acts that go against the values of humanity as well values of peaceful Afghans." It also said the attacks "demonstrate the extreme level of atrocity by terrorists against innocent civilians." A statement from NATO forces in Afghanistan praised "the courage of Afghan Security Forces, especially the police and first responders."

"Attacks such as these only serve to strengthen our commitment to our Afghan partners as they seek a peaceful, stable future for their country," the NATO statement added. Public anger at the Afghan government built in the traumatic hours after the blast. People with grim, dazed faces strode along the sidewalks, avoiding piles of glass, or sat glumly in modern offices with all their windows gone, watching the news on TV. "This is an inept government that cannot protect the people and must be dissolved. It is time for an interim government to be formed," said Mirwais Yasini, a member of parliament. The Ghani government, weakened by internal tensions, has faced an uphill battle to fend off an aggressive push by Taliban insurgents in recent months, as well as a number of assaults claimed by the Islamic State.

Others expressed disgust for the attackers, especially since they chose Ramadan, a period that Muslims devote to prayer and fasting. "How can the people who did this call themselves Muslims?" demanded Ahmed Mohibzada, 24, an office worker who had walked to the Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital to donate blood after hearing of the massive number of injured survivors. Loading He was lying on a gurney in the hospital porch with his sleeve rolled up. "I just felt I had to do something," he said. Washington Post, James Mackenzie, Mirwais Harooni