KABUL:  In the latest attack on election preparations an  IS suicide bomber has killed at least 31 people (including women and children) and wounded dozens outside a voter registration centre here today.

The assaults underscore growing concerns about security in the lead-up to legislative elections scheduled for October 20, which are seen as a test-run for next year’s presidential poll.

“It happened at the entrance gate of the centre. It was a suicide attack,” Dawood Amin, Kabul police chief said. Both the health and interior ministries confirmed the latest toll for the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group via its propaganda arm Amaq.

“The final death toll from today’s terrorist attack in Kabul reached 31 martyred and 54 wounded. All the victims were civilians and women and children are among them,” Najib Danish, interior ministry spokesman, posted on Facebook.

The centre in a heavily Shiite-populated neighborhood in the west of the city was also being used by people to register for national identification certificates, which they need to sign up to vote.

Sheets of paper and passport-sized photos lay scattered amid shattered glass and pools of blood on the street near badly damaged cars — grim evidence of the force of the blast that drew international condemnation.

“This senseless violence shows the cowardice and inhumanity of the enemies of democracy and peace in Afghanistan,” US ambassador John Bass wrote on Twitter. NATO also condemned the bombing: