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Death toll in suicide attack on Afghan students revised down to 34

FILE PHOTO: Afghan policemen arrive at the site of a suicide bomb blast in Kabul, Afghanistan August 15, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani
FILE PHOTO: Afghan policemen arrive at the site of a suicide bomb blast in Kabul, Afghanistan August 15, 2018. REUTERS/Omar Sobhani

Thomson Reuters

KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan authorities revised down on Thursday the death toll from a suicide bomb attack on an educational center in Kabul to 34 from 48, health ministry officials said.

Some bodies had been double-counted when they were being taken to hospital from the blast site following the attack on Wednesday, the ministry said.

The injury toll was revised to 56 from 67.

Most of the victims were students preparing for university entrance exams in a classroom at the Mawoud Academy in an area of west Kabul where many members of the city's mainly Shi'ite Hazara community live.

Investigators said the bomber entered the center from a rear entrance and made his way into a classroom where more than 100 students had gathered.

Their funerals were due to take place on Thursday.

There has been no claim of responsibility but the Taliban denied carrying it out.

The Hazara have often been targeted by the hardline Sunni Islamic State militant group.

The blast was the latest in a wave of attacks that have killed hundreds of civilians, soldiers and policemen over recent days.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie, Rupam Jain; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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