At least 10 children have died after an enormous bomb blast hit a boy's religious school in a sickening attack feared to have been carried out by ISIS.
Taliban Interior ministry spokesman Abdul Nafi Takor said several others were wounded in the blast in Jahdia seminary in Aybak city of Samangan during the afternoon prayer in northern Afghanistan.
The death toll remains uncertain as a provincial hospital doctor also told local news that at least 15 died and 27 are wounded at the hospital.
“All of them are children and ordinary people,” another doctor told AFP, asking not to be named.
A horrifying unverified video circulating on social media shows Taliban fighters picking their way through bodies strewn among prayer mats and shattered glass.
The provincial director of the Ministry of Information and Culture, Imdadullah Mohajir, said in a statement that the blast took place during a gathering of all students for midday prayers at the Al Jahadi madrassa.
Mr Takor said: "This afternoon, an explosion occurred in a religious seminary in Aybak, the capital of Samangan province, as a result of which about 10 students were martyred and several others were injured."
However, he did not claim the attack, saying: "Our detective and security forces are working quickly to prevent this unforgivable crime and identify the perpetrators and punish them for their actions."
The Afghan affiliate of the so-called Islamic State group has been waging a campaign of violence that escalated since the Taliban took power in August 2021.
ISIS has carried out bombings targeting in particular Afghanistan's Shia Muslim minority but has also targeted Sunni mosques and madrassas, especially ones connected to the Taliban.
The Taliban and ISIS both adhere to a hard-line ideology but are bitter rivals.
A provincial official confirmed the blast, but could not provide casualty figures.
The news comes as a suicide attack claimed by Tehrik-i-Taliban, the largest militant organisation in Pakistan that operates under the larger umbrella of the Pakistani Taliban, killed at least four and wounded 20 in Pakistan today.
The attack came two days after the Pakistani Taliban called on its fighters to launch attacks across the country.
A child was among the victims of the attack which targeted a police patrol in Quetta in the southwest.
At least 15 police officers were among those wounded in the explosion.
