Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s foreign minister, has announced that three Spanish citizens were killed and one was injured in Bamiyan province of Afghanistan.

Agence France-Presse (AFP) also reported, citing its sources, that three other injured individuals are citizens of Norway, Australia, and Lithuania.

The Taliban have stated that four people have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in this attack.

The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the consular emergency unit has been fully mobilised to assist the victims and their families.

Sánchez wrote on X social media platform that he was overwhelmed by the news of the death of Spanish tourists in Afghanistan. Expressing his condolences to the families of the victims, he said that he is monitoring the situation.

Reaction of United States & European Union

The European Union and the US Special Representative for Afghanistan condemned the attack in separate statements.

Tom West, the US Special Representative for Afghanistan, expressed condolences to the families of the victims on his X account and stated that violence is not an answer.

The European Union also expressed condolences to the families of the victims and the injured in a statement on Friday.

A spokesman for the Taliban's Ministry of Interior announced that in this attack, three foreign citizens and one Afghan had been killed, and seven others, including four foreign nationals, were injured.

There is no immediate indication of the cause of the attack, and no group has claimed responsibility for it.

Bamiyan is the site of the remains of two giant Buddha statues that were blown up by the Taliban during their previous rule in 2001.

Since taking control of Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have promised to improve security and encourage more foreign tourists to visit the country, aiming to turn the ruins of the Buddha statues into a source of revenue.

The shooting on Friday is one of the most serious attacks on foreign citizens since the withdrawal of foreign forces and the Taliban's return to power in Afghanistan.

Previously, ISIS claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on Chinese citizens in a hotel in Kabul in 2022.