An apparent terrorist attack on the Afghan capital of Kabul has left at least 40 people dead and dozens more wounded early on Thursday, December 28, Al-Masdar News reports.

An explosion rocked an area of Kabul that housed both the Afghan Voice news agency and the Tebyan cultural center, according to local sources.

1TV News, quoting an interior ministry spokesman, said a suicide bomber was likely to have been behind the attack. Images surfacing from the scene of the attack show the Afghan Voice office is likely to have been heavily damaged. According to some witnesses, the attack specifically targeted the Tebyan cultural center, in which a meeting of activists was just taking place.

Attacks against activists and journalists in Afghanistan have surged recently, with the Afghan Journalists Safety Committee (AJSC) stating that at least 73 journalists have been murdered in 2017 alone.

Earlier, in May 2017, the Afghan branch of the Islamic State group attacked an Afghan state television building in Jalalabad and killed six people. And in November, at least one security guard was killed as IS fighters stormed private television station Shamshad TV.

So far, Thursday’s attack on Kabul has not been claimed by any terrorist organisation.