A powerful car bomb exploded in the center of Afghanistan’s capital on Wednesday, sending clouds of black smoke spiraling over the center of the city in an area near the presidential palace and foreign embassies, police said

Several people were killed and wounded in the blast near the fortified entrance to the German embassy, said Basir Mujahid a spokesman for Kabul police.

The explosion shattered windows and blew doors off their hinges in houses hundreds of meters (yards) away.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast. A spokesman for Taliban insurgents said he was gathering information.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Robert Birsel and Michael Perry)