Explosion in embassy district of Kabul as mortar hits kindergarten

Embassy sirens were heard in Kabul as the city was hit by a presumed rocket attack.

The mortar struck a kindergarten in the Macrorayan district, triggering alarms in nearby foreign embassies which were already on high alert following a suicide attack in the city the day before.

The school was empty at the time of the attack and there were no casualties, an interior ministry official said.

The attack came one day after at least 80 people were killed and 230 people were injured by a suicide bomber attack on a peaceful demonstration in the Afghan city.

Isis has claimed responsibility for attack by a man who detonated his suicide vest in the crowd of mostly Shia Muslims on Saturday.

The demonstration was for the ethnic Hazara people who were demaning a major regional electric power line be routed their impoverished home province.

The attack was the deadliest assault on the city since the invastion 15 years ago.

Footage on Afghan televisoon showed scenes of carnage with numerous bodies and body parts spread across the area.

Witnesses said police fired shots into the air to disperse the crowd immediately following the blast as secondary attacks are known to target people who rush to help following the first explosion.

Believing they were under attack from police, some demonstrators then sealed off the square preventing security personnel getting to the wounded.

Roadblocks set up to stop protesters getting to the presidential palace also made it difficult to take the injured to hospital.

The terror group professes Sunni Islam and has previously targeted Shias in other countries - such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen.

Families began to bury their dead on Sunday as members of the Hazara community over the border in Pakistan staged vigil for the dead in Quetta.

Additional reporting by agencies