Several people were killed and injured after unidentified gunmen opened fire on civilians in Afghanistan’s Herat province, officials and local media reports said.
According to the BBC’s Pashto service, at least 12 people were killed and 15 injured in the attack, including two women. However, a spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry put the death toll at seven.
Sources told the BBC that 12 bodies had been transferred to a hospital following the incident, while a doctor in Herat said the victims were Hazara Shia Muslims.
Shia Muslims, primarily from the Hazara ethnic group, are a minority in Afghanistan and have been targeted in previous attacks.
Ahmadullah Muttaqi, head of the Department of Information and Culture in Herat, said the shooting took place in the Deh Mehri area of Enjil district, where armed men opened indiscriminate fire on civilians who had gone there for recreation.
He said four bodies and 15 wounded people, including two women, had been taken to the Herat regional hospital.
Muttaqi described the incident as “an act of terrorism” and said security forces had arrested one suspected attacker, adding that further investigations were under way.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.