At least 50 people have been killed while more than 100 have been injured in blasts close to a secondary school in the Afghan capital Kabul.
The explosions took place as students were leaving the building on Saturday, with pictures on social media showing abandoned school bags in the street, BBC reported.
The neighbourhood in western Kabul is home to many from the Shia Hazara minority community.
Most of the victims were girls, a ministry of education spokeswoman said.
No-one has admitted carrying out the attack in Dasht-e-Barchi – an area often hit by terrorists
Afghan government officials blamed Taliban militants for the attack, but the group denied any involvement.
The explosions are believed to have been caused by a car bomb and two improvised explosive devices planted in the area.
The exact target for Saturday’s bloodshed is unclear.
The blasts come against a backdrop of rising violence as the US looks to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by 11 September.
Reports from Kabul say the city was busy with shoppers ahead of this year’s celebrations for Eid al-Fitr next week.
Students were also streaming from the school. Najiba Arian, ministry of education spokeswoman, told Reuters news agency the government-run school was open to boys and girls.
Several witnesses described hearing three separate explosions, while one woman told AFP news agency she had seen “many bloodied bodies in dust and smoke”.
“I saw a woman checking the bodies and calling for her daughter,” the woman, Reza, said. “She then found her daughter’s bloodstained purse after which she fainted and fell to the ground.”
