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Breaking News

Explosion in Downtown Kabul

Aired September 05, 2002 - 07:33   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: More breaking news to talk about. We now have more on that explosion this morning in a crowded part of the Afghan capital of Kabul.
Matthew Chance standing by on the phone near the scene of the blast -- Matthew, good morning.

What can you tell us?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, as well.

Well, good morning to you, Paula.

We're at, we're standing as close as the Afghan authorities are allowing us to get to where this explosion for what we now know to be two explosions detonated just about an hour or so ago here in the center of the Afghan capital of Kabul.

What we know to have happened, according to the Afghan authorities on the ground here, is that there was some kind of small detonation which attracted, obviously, a crowd around it, including members of the security forces to check out what happened. That was followed, according to witnesses on the scene, by a much bigger explosion, perhaps emanating from a car, which obviously caused a great deal many more casualties and dead.

We're hearing figures from eyewitnesses -- although not from the emergency services at this stage -- one man told me he saw at least four bodies, dead bodies on the floor. Tens of people, perhaps as many as 30 or so, have been carried away in ambulances to local hospitals. Apparently the authorities are on the ground conducting a search for more devices.

What we know is that this explosion took place outside the Ministry of Information and Culture in quite a busy area of the Afghan capital. But we don't know at this stage whether that ministry was the intended target of these explosions. What we do know is that a lot of buildings in the vicinity have been damaged. Windows have been blown out. I can see two wrecked cars in the street in the location where the explosion took place.

Afghan authorities are keeping the press back and other people back while they conduct, as I say, investigations and look for more possible explosive devices -- Paula.

ZAHN: And, Matthew, once again, just to put this in perspective very quickly, this isn't the first, obviously, occasion of explosions since this war on terror was declared.

CHANCE: Well, indeed. In the past month or so, in fact, there have been quite a few, very small, very minor detonations inside the Afghan capital, most of which, though, have not caused serious damage. They have been placed in relatively isolated areas of the capital.

That, of course, despite the fact there are a great deal of Afghan forces providing security as well as international coalition troops, international security and assistance forces on the ground to try and prevent or try and ensure stability, security in the Afghan capital. These kinds of attacks, though, if, indeed, it was an intentional attack, are very difficult to fight against, though -- Paula.

ZAHN: Matthew Chance, thanks for that update out of Kabul.

And once again, for those of you just joining us, what Matthew just explained was that witnesses have told him that as many as four people have lost their lives, some 30 people injured. As is the case with most of these stories, because the ministry officials haven't been able to officially confirm that, it's kind of hard to get a sense on just how bad things are. But apparently this is much more serious than the explosions we've witnessed there in the past month.

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