KABUL, May 2: A massive explosion ripped through a secret ammunition dump owned by a warlord in northern Afghanistan on Monday, killing at least 28 people and injuring more than 70 others, police and officials said. The devastating blast wiped out an entire neighbourhood in Bachgah, a small village in Baghlan province some 180km north of Kabul.

The underground bunker belonged to a militia commander, who kept ammunition hidden from a United Nations-backed disarmament drive, interior ministry spokesman Lutfullah Mashal told AFP. “It was a dreadful, massive explosion,” Mr Mashal said. “Lots of houses around the explosion site have been destroyed. The casualty toll from the explosion is 28 killed and more than 70 wounded.”

There were conflicting reports about whether the commander, named as Jalal-i-Bachgah, was killed in the blast but all his family members have died, Mr Mashal added. “There was a huge explosion at 6am which killed at least 28 people,” Baghlan provincial police chief Fazeluddin Ayar told AFP.

Investigators were at the site to determine the cause of the blast, Mr Ayar said. He was also unable to say if the commander had died. Huge stockpiles of weaponry and ammunition are still left over in Afghanistan after two-and-a-half decades of near-constant war.

Almost 50,000 militiamen, who take their orders from warlords and local commanders, have been disarmed as part of a United Nations-backed disarmament drive launched in October 2003.