Kabul, Aug 25 (Xinhua) A powerful blast rocked the city of Kandahar in south Afghanistan Tuesday evening leaving 36 persons dead and over 60 injured, all of them civilians, officials said.

Ghulam Wali Wahdad, the police chief in south Afghanistan, told Xinhua that a lorry full of explosives was detonated in front of a building housing a Japanese road construction company in Kandahar city, leaving 36 people dead and 64 wounded.

Wahdad said the blast was very strong and damaged buildings some 100 meters away.

A senior police officer in Kandahar city Pashtun Mohmand described it as a suicide attack, saying several people, mostly civilians, have been killed and injured in the blast.

Afghan Interior Ministry also confirmed there was at least one explosion outside the hotel in Kandahar.

The attack took place just an hour after the Afghan election body announced the partial result of the Aug 20 election showing sitting president Hamid Karzai in lead.

Taliban militants who termed the election as a US sponsored conspiracy have intensified their activities against government interests.