A bomb exploded outside a police station in the western Afghan city of Herat on Sunday, killing five people and injuring at least 10 others, including a police officer, authorities said.
Herat police chief Ziauddin Mahmoudi said a time-bomb concealed in a pile of garbage along a main road exploded near a building with shops on the ground floor and a police station on the upper floor.
The blast killed five people, including a young boy, and wounded 10, including one police officer, he said.
Abdul Wahid Tawaqali, the deputy provincial intelligence chief, said five people were killed and 29 others were injured.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.
"It's the work of the enemies of Afghanistan," Mahmoudi said.
The explosion occurred as a ceremony was being held elsewhere in Herat to mark the start of the disarmament of militia forces under a U.N.-backed program.
U.N. spokesman Manoel de Almeida e Silva said the blast happened near a carpet shop three miles from the disarmament parade.
Herat is considered one of the more stable provinces in the war-battered country and has been largely spared attacks by Taliban-led insurgents active in the south and east.
Herat city is 360 miles west of the capital, Kabul.
However, forces of the Afghan national army were deployed there in March after factional fighting killed 16 people, including a Cabinet minister.
