At least 41 people have been killed and 84 injured in a suicide bombing attack on a news agency and a neighbouring Shiite Muslim cultural centre in Afghanistan's capital Kabul.

Key points: Many of the victims were students, witnesses say

Many of the victims were students, witnesses say One reporter at the agency was killed and one was injured, journalist says

One reporter at the agency was killed and one was injured, journalist says Attack is latest in a series to hit Afghan media groups

The attack, which involved at least three explosions, occurred during a morning panel discussion with journalists at the Tabian Social and Cultural Centre.

Women, children and journalists were among the dead, and most of the injured suffered from burns, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Health said.

Students who had gathered for the panel discussion were also killed in the attack.

The floors of the centre, at the basement level, were covered in blood as wailing survivors and relatives picked through the debris, while windows of the news agency, on the second floor, were all shattered.

"We were shocked and didn't feel the explosion at first, but we saw smoke coming up from below," said Ali Reza Ahmadi, a journalist with the Afghan Voice news agency, who was sitting in his office above the centre when the attack took place.

"Survivors were coming out. I saw one boy with cuts to his feet and others with burns all over their faces," he said.

"About 10 minutes after the first explosion, there was another one outside on the street and then another one."

An injured man is moved into an ambulance in Kabul. ( Reuters: Mohammad Ismail )

Photographs sent by witnesses showed what appeared to be serious damage at the site, and a number of dead and injured on the ground.

Terrorist group Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, and said three bombs were used in the assault as well as a single suicide bomber who blew himself up inside the centre.

Deputy Health Minister Feda Mohammad Paikan said 35 bodies had been brought into a nearby hospital.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's spokesman issued a statement calling the attack an "unpardonable" crime against humanity, and pledging to destroy terrorist groups.

Latest in string of attacks targeting Shiite targets, media groups

A distraught man is cared for outside a hospital in Kabul. ( AP: Rahmat Gul )

Thursday's bloodshed follows an attack on a private television station in Kabul last month, which was also claimed by the local affiliate of Islamic State.

Over the past two years, Islamic State in Khorasan has claimed a growing number of attacks on Shiite targets in Afghanistan, where sectarian attacks were previously rare.

The site of the attack was in a heavily Shiite Muslim area in the west of the capital.

The Afghan Voice news agency, located in the centre, is linked to Iranian interests.

Afghan policemen stand guard at the site of the blast in Kabul. ( Reuters: Mohammad Ismail )

Prior to Thursday's attack, there had been at least 12 attacks on Shiite targets since the start of 2016, in which almost 700 people were killed or wounded, according to United Nations figures.

Before that, there had only been one major attack, in 2011.

The attacks have increased pressure on Mr Ghani's Western-backed government to improve security.

Much of the centre of Kabul is already a fortified zone of concrete blast walls and police checkpoints, following repeated attacks on the diplomatic quarter of the city.

Afghanistan is among the world's most dangerous countries for media workers, according to a report this month by media freedom group Reporters without Borders.

The attack is the latest in a series to hit Afghan media groups in recent years. ( AP: Rahmat Gul )

Reuters/AP/ABC