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Doha, Jan 20: Seven people, including a Chinese national, have been killed in an explosion at a hotel in the Shahr e Naw area of Kabul, Afghanistan. News agency ANI reported that unverified reports have surfaced about the cause of the blast.

Initial reports say a gas cylinder inside the hotel leaked and exploded, with staff negligence cited as a possible reason. Kabul police spokesperson Khalid Zadran said the explosion occurred at a jointly run hotel called Chinese Noodle, operated by Chinese Muslims and Afghans.

He said one of the victims was Abdul Majid, a Chinese Muslim from China’s Xinjiang province. The hotel was jointly operated by Abdul Majid, his wife, and an Afghan national named Abdul Jabbar Mahmud.

Zadran said six other Afghans were also killed. A large number of people were injured.

Further investigation into the incident is underway. Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reported that the Italian nongovernmental organization Emergency said 20 injured people from the explosion were brought to a medical center it runs in Kabul, and seven of them were already dead by the time they arrived. The organization said the casualty figures are still preliminary.

People’s News Monitoring Service