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Death toll rising after bomb explodes in ambulance in Afghan capital

KABUL, Afghanistan — An ambulance loaded with explosives was detonated in Afghanistan’s capital Saturday, killing at least 95 people and wounding 158, Afghan officials said.

The Taliban took responsibility for the blast, CNN reported. The ambulance exploded at a police checkpoint in the capital near government buildings and embassies, Reuters reported.

The early afternoon explosion occurred after the ambulance passed through a security checkpoint, Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told CNN.

Police identified the attacker at a second checkpoint but were unable to stop him before he detonated the explosives near the old Ministry of the Interior building, Rahimi said.

“It is a massacre,” said Dejan Panic, an emergency aid coordinator.

“I was sitting in the office when the explosion went off,” said Alam, an office worker whose head was badly cut in the blast, told Reuters. “All the windows shattered, the building collapsed and everything came down.”

The International Red Cross said the use of an ambulance was "harrowing," the BBC reported.

Afghanistan's chief executive, Abdullah Abdullah, tweeted that the attack was "insane, inhuman, heinous and a war crime."