KABUL: A bomb blast in the Afghan capital Wednesday killed three German police officers and a foreign ministry staffer, officials in Kabul and Berlin said.

A Western official in Kabul told AFP they were travelling in two vehicles when the bomb went off.

In Berlin, security officials said two were members of the German federal police and the other was an employee of the German foreign ministry.

Taliban spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to AFP.

"It was a remote-controlled bomb which exploded in front of a military convoy," he said.

An AFP photographer at the scene of the explosion in the capital's southeast reported a destroyed, overturned four-wheel-drive vehicle of the type usually used by military forces and diplomats in Kabul.

The photographer also saw military helicopters taking casualties from the scene.

The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, in which Germany has about 3,000 troops, said it was aware of "an explosion" but had no details. - AFP/ac