KANDAHAR: A suicide attacker walked into a district government compound in southern Afghanistan and blew himself up on Monday, killing eight people and wounding six others, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast in the Dand district of the southern province of Kandahar. The province is a stronghold of the Taliban militia behind a growing insurgency, according to AFP.

‘The suicide attacker was on foot and he entered the citizen registration department and detonated (his explosives),’ said the police commander for southern Afghanistan, General Ghulam Ali Wahdat.

Five policemen and three civilians were killed, he said.

Another official had said earlier that two policemen and six civilians were killed. Six people, including the district police chief, were wounded, said the Kandahar government spokesman Zalmai Ayobi.

The compound is the government headquarters of Dand, which is just south of the city of Kandahar, and includes administration offices and police headquarters.

There were a record number of attacks last year, with nearly 2,200 civilians killed in attacks and military action, according to the United Nations.