Kabul, Oct. 28 : At least seven persons, including three UN staff, were killed when armed gunmen stormed into a UN guesthouse and opened indiscriminate firing in Kabul early on Wednesday.

Security officials said five to six attackers raided the UN building, which is situated in the crowded neighbourhood of Chicken Street at dawn and held several people hostage, besides killing seven persons.

“There are five or six terrorists inside. The attack is inside a U. N. guest house,” The News quoted a top police official, Waheed Sadiqi, as saying.

He said the attackers came in two groups.

“The first group detonated an explosives vest before the rest of the group fled into the apartment building,” the official said.

U. N. spokesman Adrian Edwards confirmed the death of three staffers.

“There are 20 U. N. staff registered there, but whether all were there at the time of the attack is not clear,” Edwards said.

A heavy gunbattle between the attackers and security officials was still on when reports last came in.

Meanwhile, the Taliban has claimed responsibility for the strike.

A self-proclaimed spokesman of the banned outfit, Zabiullah Mujahid, called foreign news agencies from an undisclosed location and said the attack was in response to the continuous suppression of local people by foreign forces.

Mujahid said the attack was meant to warn authorities against holding elections inAfghanistan. (ANI)