Dozens of casualties after blast at Shia mosque in Afghanistan

A blast Thursday at a mosque in Mazar-i-Sharif city in Afghanistan caused dozens of casualties, a Taliban official said, the second attack against a Shia target in three days.

"There are at least 25 casualties," Zabihullah Noorani, head of Balkh province's information and culture department, told AFP.

Grisly images of victims being carried to hospital from the Seh Dokan mosque, which was littered with broken glass, were posted on social media networks.

Afghanistan's Shia Hazara community, which makes up between 10 and 20 percent of the country's 38 million people, has long been the target of attacks -- some blamed on the Taliban and others on the Islamic State group.

On Tuesday, two blasts outside a school in a Shiite neighbourhood of Kabul killed at least six people and wounded 25 others.