Officials say a suicide car bomber carried out the attack [AFP]

The blast on Thursday occured close to the Indian embassy just after 8.30am (04:00GMT).

Two policemen were among those dead, with 13 others wounded.

A senior Indian embassy diplomat said that the bomb targeted the Indian embassy.

"It was a suicide car bomb attack. There are civilian and police casualties," Zemarai Bashary, an Afghan interior ministry spokesman, said.

One report said that two cars, one marked with UN insignia, were badly damaged in the blast.

Smoke was seen rising from downtown Kabul and the windows of shops in the blast area were smashed.

Taliban responsibility

Shortly after the blast, Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack on its official website and identified the attacker as Khalid.

Sayyid Abdul Gafoor, the head of the interior ministry's anti-crime unit, said special kind of explosives were used during the explosion and the vehicle used in the suicide attack was not registered in Afghanistan, indicating possible foreign involvement.

Vishnu Prakash, an Indian foreign ministry spokesman, said in New Delhi: "As per reports we have received all embassy personnel are safe. There has been some damage to the embassy property.

"We are closely monitoring the situation."

The Afghan interior ministry is on the opposite side of the road from the Indian embassy.

Kabul has been hit on multiple occasions recently by suicide bombings and roadside bombs.

Dozens of people were killed in an attack on the Indian embassy in July 2008, since which time the access road has been barricaded.

Two senior Indian diplomats were among the 58 people killed in the 2008 attack.

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