KABUL, Afghanistan — A huge explosion hit outside the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul on Wednesday night, with witnesses saying gunfire was heard afterward as students and staff members began to evacuate.
Afghan security forces arrived at the scene of the well-guarded campus in the western part of the capital, but a number of people were apparently stuck inside the compound, some of them taking to social media to ask for help.
An operator at the Kabul police emergency line said calls had come in from panicking people inside the university who said attackers had infiltrated after an initial explosion.
But at checkpoints outside the campus, security officials insisted that the attackers had not infiltrated the perimeter of the university.
Ahmad Jawad, a police officer at the site of the attack, said a car bomb exploded in front of a school for the blind, which is next to the American University. He said that the attackers had entered that school, and were firing at the American University from there.