Three foreign tourists and an Afghan were killed on Friday in a shooting in the popular tourism destination of Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, the interior ministry said.
“One Afghan and three foreign nationals were killed” in gunfire on Friday evening in Bamiyan city, interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani, told AFP.
Another four foreigners and three Afghans were wounded, he added.
Qani said the “foreigners were here for tourism”, without giving the nationalities of the foreign victims.
According to preliminary information provided by hospital sources, the three foreigners who were killed were Spanish nationals.
The wounded were from Norway, Australia, Lithuania and Spain.
Diplomatic sources said they were seeking to confirm the information, including the identities of the dead.
Security forces have arrested four people in connection with the attack, Qani said.
He did not say if there had been multiple shooters.
The Taliban government “strongly condemns this crime, expresses its deep feelings to the families of the victims and assures that all the criminals will be found and punished”, Qani said in a statement.
A local resident, who did not want to be named, said he “heard the sounds of successive gunshots, and the city streets leading to the site were blocked immediately by the security forces”.
Mountainous Bamiyan is home to a Unesco world heritage site and the remains of two giant Buddha statues which were blown up by the Taliban during their previous rule in 2001.
The region is Afghanistan’s top tourist destination.
The Taliban government has yet to be officially recognised by any country but it has welcomed foreign tourism.
Increasing numbers of visitors have travelled to Afghanistan as security has improved since the Taliban ended their insurgency after ousting the Western-backed government in 2021.
They holiday without consular support after most embassies were evacuated following the Taliban authorities’ takeover, with Western governments warning against visiting.
Deadly attacks on foreigners have been rare in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power.
Arriving in western Herat province on Friday evening, a foreign tourist posted on a WhatsApp group for travellers in Afghanistan that he and others were stopped by the Taliban authorities and told “that because of Bamiyan, we were no longer safe”.
“After some time and Google translate, we convinced them to let us go, they said go eat quickly and get off the streets,” the tourist said.
The number of bombings and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has reduced dramatically since the Taliban authorities took power.
However, a number of armed groups, including Islamic State, (IS) remain a threat.
Friday’s attack was among the most serious targeting foreign citizens since 2021.
The IS claimed an attack that injured Chinese citizens at a hotel popular with Chinese businessmen in Kabul two years ago.