Suicide bombing rocks Kabul hospital

Suicide bombing rocks Kabul hospital

Blast at military hospital leaves six dead, while police search for possible second bomber reportedly on the loose.

At least six people have been killed and 23 injured in a suicide bombing at a surgery training session in a military hospital in the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Two suicide bombers were thought to be involved in the attack on Saturday, according to the Afghan Tolo news network, leaving one unaccounted for and possibly still inside the compound, Al Jazeera's Sue Turton reported.

Nervous army and police troops herded a crowd far back from the walls of the hospital compound shortly after the explosion, she said.

A doctor working inside the hospital told Al Jazeera that colleagues and patients rushed away from the direction of the blast and locked themselves in rooms, fearing another bomber would attack. The blast hit a tent on the hospital grounds that is used to teach surgery practices, Turton reported.

"It's very interesting how the suicide bombers managed to get inside," she said. Anyone wishing to visit family or friends in the hospital, which treats wounded soldiers, is required to go through a security check and obtain special identification cards, she added.

"It does seem that these suicide bombers might have possibly had ... an ID given to them" or might have been wearing uniforms, Turton said.

The hospital is located just a few hundred meters from the United States embassy in what is known as the capital's "Green Zone."

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies