Three Spanish tourists and a local were killed by gunfire in Afghanistan on Friday.
“An Afghan and three foreign nationals were killed by gunfire in the city of Bamijan on Friday evening,” Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Kani told AFP. Four foreigners and three Afghans were also injured, he added. “The foreigners were here for tourist purposes,” Kani explained, without disclosing their nationality.
Hospital circles initially said that the dead could be Spanish and that the injured were from Norway, Australia, Lithuania and Spain. The Spanish Foreign Ministry later partially confirmed the information: “Three Spaniards were killed and at least one was injured in a shootout in Afghanistan,” said a Foreign Ministry source who wished to remain anonymous.
A resident said he heard several consecutive shots and the streets were immediately closed by security forces. The EU condemned the incident “in the strongest possible terms”. “Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of the victims who lost their lives and those who were injured in the attack,” it said in a statement.
According to the Afghan Interior Ministry, four people were arrested in connection with the incident. Ministry spokesman Kani did not provide any information as to whether it was a single or multiple shooters. Kani said the shooting occurred in the tourist town of Bamijan in central Afghanistan. There were once huge Buddha statues in the city, but they were destroyed by the radical Islamic Taliban in 2001.