Afghanistan: Seven, including a Chinese national killed in hotel blast in Kabul

Kabul: Seven people, including a Chinese national, were killed in a blast at a hotel in Kabul's Shahr-e-Naw area in Afghanistan, officials said.

Ther are conflicting reports about the cause of the blast. One report stated it was triggered by a gas cylinder inside the kitchen of a restaurant, blaming staff for "negligence".

Kabul police spokesperson Khalid Zadran was quoted as saying that the blast occurred at the joint restaurant of Chinese Muslims and Afghans called "Chinese Noodle."

He added that a Chinese Muslim, Abdul Majid, resident of Xinjiang province, was among the victims.

"Today, around 3 PM, an explosion occurred in Kabul city, in the Gulforoshi alley of Shahr-e-Naw, at the joint restaurant of Chinese Muslims and Afghans called "Chinese Noodle".

The restaurant was jointly operated by a Chinese Muslim named Abdul Majid, his wife, and an Afghan named Abdul Jabbar Mahmoud. Abdul Majid was a Muslim resident of Xinjiang province in China, Zadran was quoted in a post on X.

"Here, food was prepared and sold specifically for Chinese Muslims. In today's explosion, one Chinese national named Ayub, who was Muslim, and 6 Afghans were killed, and several others were injured. The explosion happened near the kitchen," he added.

Further investigation is underway.

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera reported that Italian NGO Emergency said a medical facility it oversees in Kabul had received 20 people from the blast, seven of whom were dead when they arrived.

The organisation said the casualty figures were "still provisional".

Twenty people have been received at Emergency's Surgical Centre in Kabul following an explosion this afternoon in the Shahr-e-Naw area, near the hospital.

Among those received were seven people dead on arrival, the NGO said in a statement.