Eleven people, mostly children, died when a truck transporting gas canisters exploded outside the western city of Herat in Afghanistan.
Rafiq Sherzai, spokesman for the Herat Regional Hospital, said that 18 people were also wounded in the blast late Monday. He said the blast happened inside the compound of a gas supply company adjacent to a camp for internally displaced people.
The explosion was so powerful that the burning truck was flung into the camp, he said.
The explosion killed 10 children and an adult living in a camp for people displaced by war. Four of the wounded were sent to Iran for treatment with burns to more than 90 per cent of their body, Sherzai said.
