Gunshots fired inside Kabul university on day of Iranian book fair: officials

Gunshots were fired inside Kabul university on Monday as several senior government officials were expected to attend the opening of an Iranian book fair, officials said.

"Gunshots are being heard from inside the university," Hamid Obaidi, spokesman for Afghanistan's ministry of higher education, told AFP.

He said students were being evacuated from the building. 

The ministry of interior confirmed gunshots were heard at the university and that police had been deployed.

There were no immediate details of any casualties.

In recent years, several education centres have come under attack from extremist groups such as Islamic State (IS).

Last week at least 24 people, mostly students, were killed in a suicide attack on an educational centre in western Kabul district that was claimed by IS.

In 2018, a suicide bomber had killed dozens of people, many of them teenagers, in front of Kabul university in an attack also claimed by IS.