The minarets of the Gawharshad Musalla complex

At least 11 people, many of them children, were killed in a series of explosions at a gas storage facility on the edge of the western Afghan city of Herat, officials said Tuesday.

"Around midnight (Monday) a gas tanker exploded which triggered blasts in a gas storage plant, killing 11 people and injuring 10 others," Herat police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi told AFP.