Guards shot children dead after Afghan suicide blast, says UN

The department of safety and security report, which was obtained by the Associated Press, said it was not clear how many people died in the bombing or from the gunfire immediately after the attack on November 6 in Baghlan province.

Sixty-one children, five teachers, six MPs and five bodyguards died in the attack. Ninety-three other children were injured, some critically.

One estimate said up to two-thirds of the 77 people killed and more than 100 wounded were hit by gunfire; other estimates put the numbers shot much lower.

"Regardless of what the exact breakdown of numbers may be, the fact remains that a number of armed men deliberately and indiscriminately fired into a crowd of unarmed civilians that posed no threat to them, causing multiple deaths and injuries," the report said.

"It is believed that at least 100 rounds or more were fired into the crowd with a separate group of school children off to one side of the road bearing the brunt of the onslaught at close range," it added.

Adrian Edwards, the UN spokesman in Afghanistan, said the report was one of several conflicting views inside the UN and that its findings had not been endorsed.

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