Nine school pupils and a police officer have been killed in a suicide bombing outside a market in east Afghanistan.

The attacker was reportedly targeting a passing US military patrol but it was unclear if there were any American casualties.

General Zelmia Oryakhail, provincial police chief of Paktia province, said the bomber was on a motorbike and detonated his explosives at midday on Monday outside the market in Samkani district.

He said a local school had let students out for lunch moments earlier. Fifteen other pupils were wounded, Oryakhail added, but did not say how old they were. He could not give information about the American patrol.

The international coalition did not immediately confirm the incident.