A suspected Islamic State (Isil) truck bomb tore through the diplomatic quarter of Kabul on Wednesday, killing at least 90 people including a BBC driver and badly damaging the German embassy.

If confirmed that Isil was behind the bombing, it would mark a significant escalation of the jihadists’ violence in Afghanistan and the latest in a string of deadly attacks at the beginning of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The massive explosive was hidden inside a sewage tank on the back of a truck and went off during the morning rush hour, wounding around 400 people and leaving a large crater. The attack was one of the deadliest in Kabul since the US-led invasion in 2001.