UPDATE 2-At least seven killed in Kabul hotel blast

(Updates death toll, adds humanitarian group's quote in paragraphs 4-5) KABUL, Jan 19 (Reuters) - An explosion tore through ‌a hotel in a heavily guarded part of central Kabul on Monday, killing seven people ⁠and injuring several others, authorities in the Afghan capital said.

(Updates death toll, adds humanitarian group's quote in paragraphs 4-5) KABUL, Jan 19 (Reuters) -

An explosion tore through ‌a hotel in a heavily guarded part of central Kabul on Monday, killing seven people ⁠and injuring several others, authorities in the Afghan capital said. Kabul police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said the hotel was in the commercial Shahr-e-Naw ​neighbourhood that includes large office buildings, shopping complexes and embassies. The ‍district is considered one of the safest in Kabul.

Videos shared on social media showed debris scattered on the street outside and smoke spewing from a ⁠large ‌hole torn ⁠into the front of the hotel building. "So far, we have received 20 people ‍at our hospital," Dejan Panic, humanitarian group EMERGENCY's Country Director in Afghanistan, said ​in a statement.

"Among the wounded are four women and ⁠a child ... Unfortunately, seven people were already dead on arrival." There was no immediate ⁠word on the cause of the explosion. Authorities said they were investigating.

The Taliban took control of war-torn Afghanistan in ⁠2021 and said it would restore security, but bomb attacks have continued, many ⁠of them ‌claimed by the local arm of the militant Islamic State group.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)