It has been reported that as many as 19 spectators were killed with many more wounded by an explosion that rocked the Kabul International Cricket Stadium on Friday, 29 July 2022.
According to reports, the spectators were injured after a grenade explosion during a match between Band-e-Amir Dragons and Pamir Zalmi in Kabul.
The afternoon cricket match was part of an annual T20 Shpageza Cricket League, with several hundred people in the grounds at the time of the incident.
Vision of the explosion uploaded to Twitter shows a small amount of smoke, with spectators calling out prior to fleeing the stands.
Taliban police spokesman Khalid Zadran told reporters that the cricket match was suspended briefly after the explosion but was restarted once the area had been cleaned.
The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, was present during the attack and said in a statement that the “blast is yet another harrowing reminder of the terrifying and sudden violence that the population in Afghanistan continues to be exposed to”.
The Italian-run Emergency Hospital in Kabul tweeted that 12 of the wounded spectators remained in hospital, with the final patient treated and discharged on Friday.
