KABUL, Afghanistan — As many as 40 people were killed Sunday after a suicide bomber detonated explosives in a crowd gathered for a volleyball match in a village in eastern Afghanistan, a spokesman for the provincial governor said.

Up to 60 people were wounded in the blast, which occurred in the Yahya Khel district of Paktika Province, said the spokesman, Mokhlis Afghan.

The province’s deputy governor, Attaullah Fazli, put the number of dead at 50.

Although most of the victims were civilians, the dead included eight members of the Afghan Local Police, a village-based paramilitary outfit that supports the Afghan government, said Bahawul Khan Katawazai, a member of the Paktika provincial council.

The attack occurred after 5 p.m. in a small village where a local volleyball team was competing against players from a neighboring district, Yosuf Khel. Volleyball is among the most popular forms of entertainment in rural Afghanistan. Villages and district teams often compete against each other in a local circuit, attracting sizable crowds of young men.