At least 80 people were killed and dozens others were injured when a suicide bomber attacked a dog fighting competition on Sunday in the outskirts of the city of Kandahar. The attack looked like the deadliest in the country since 2001 when the Taliban fall.

Over 300 people were gathered in the city of Kandahar to watch a dog fighting competition. Among them there were also some Afghan militia leaders.  

Kandahar Gov. Asadullah Khalid said: “Sixty of the martyrs were brought to hospitals and 20 more dead bodies were taken from the site," BBC News reports.

“This suicide attack was the work of the Taliban,” he added.

Still the Taliban didn’t take the responsibility for the attack.

According to Abdullah Fahim, a Health Ministry spokesman, almost 90 people were injured, the Associated Press informs.

Witnesses said that after the explosion the bodyguards started to shoot, but it isn’t clear if there were any casualties from the gunfire.   

Kandahar, the second largest city in Afghanistan, is the former stronghold of the Taliban and the largest opium poppy producing regions in the country. Here NATO forces carried battles with the Taliban rebels over the last two years.

Dog fighting competitions are frequent in Afghanistan and it gathers hundreds of people who are crammed into a circle around the show.

According to Wali Karzai, brother of President Hamid Karzai and the president of Kandahar's provincial council, Abdul Hakim Jan, the head of the local militia was the target of the attack. Jan was killed din the attack Karzai said.

One resident of Kandahar, Faizullah Qar Gar, who was at the competition, said that the bodyguards of militants commanders started to shoot at the crowd after the explosion.

There were body parts scattered in the area when paramedics came in and rushed the injured to hospitals.

Another similar attack occurred in November in the northern city of Baghlan. At least 70 people were killed by a suicide bomb attack and a series of gunfire which occurred afterwards.