A powerful blast rocked Taliban birthplace Kandahar in south Afghanistan Tuesday evening leaving 36 persons dead and over 60 injured, all of them civilians, officials said.

Afghan men are pictured on the site of a bomb blast in Kandahar city. A massive bomb ripped through the downtown area of the troubled Afghan city of Kandahar, killing up to 36 people and wounding dozens near hotels and government offices, officials said. [Xinhua]

Ghulam Wali Wahdad, the police chief in south Afghanistan, told Xinhua a lorry full of explosive materials was detonated in front of a building housing a Japanese road construction company in Kandahar city, leaving 36 people dead and 64 others wounded, all civilians.

Wahdad said the blast was very strong even causing damages on buildings some 100 meters away.

He failed to say how many women, children or men were there among the deaths.

Earlier, doctors in Mir Wais hospital told Xinhua the hospital have received eight dead bodies and 13 wounded.

A senior police officer in Kandahar city Pashtun Mohmand described it as a suicide attack, saying several persons, mostly civilians, have been killed and injured in the blast.

Afghan Interior Ministry also confirmed there was at least one explosion outside the hotel in Kandahar.

The attack took place just hour after the Afghan election body announced the partial result of the August 20 election showing sitting president Hamid Karzai in lead.

Taliban militants who termed the election as a US sponsored conspiracy have intensified their activities against government interests.

(Xinhua News Agency August 26, 2009)