The Taliban have claimed responsibility for a supermarket suicide bombing that has killed eight people, including three foreign women, in the Afghan capital, Kabul. The attacker opened fire with an automatic weapon before blowing himself up.

Several shop assistants and foreigners were killed and injured and there are reports that a child was among the dead.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack and say they were targeting employees from a US security company.

Violence in Afghanistan is at its worst level since the overthrow of the Taliban by US-backed Afghan forces in late 2001, with record casualties on all sides of the conflict and a raging insurgency that has shown little sign of abating.