Dozens of people are dead after a bomb exploded Tuesday near a group of Afghan politicians, children and elders who were touring a sugar factory north of Kabul, officials said.

Initial details were scarce, but the Ministry of the Interior said at least 28 people were killed in the blast in the province of Baghlan, including at least five parliamentarians. Many more were wounded.

Afghan parliamentarian and spokesman Sayed Mustafa Kazimi talks to the people of Baghlan prior to being killed by a suicide bombing attack on Tuesday, Nov. 6. (Sameer Najafizada/Associated Press)

Former Afghan commerce minister Sayed Mustafa Kazimi, a liberal member of Parliament, was among the slain, politician Faizullah Zakihas confirmed. The names of the other politicians killed haven't been released.

When the bomb exploded, the politicians were being greeted by a group of schoolchildren and Afghan elders, police and government officials said. There were no further details immediately available.

After the blast, people "everywhere" were wounded, including police, children, lawmakers and officials from the Department of Agriculture, Afghan police official Kamin Khan said.

Afghan investigators check the site of a suicide attack north of Kabul on Tuesday. The bomb attack targeted a group of lawmakers killing at least 28 people.
(Sameer Najafizada/Associated Press)

A physician treating the wounded, Dr. Mohammad Yousuf Fayez, said the death toll is likely much higher than 28, as families carted away bodies from the bombing site.

The doctor did not know how many of the dead were children, but said at least 42 of the 81 wounded he knew of were young.

The blast is one of the deadliest in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion toppled the Taliban government in late 2001.

The current government is trying to tally the dead and wounded, who were taken to different hospitals, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary. He said an investigation has begun.

"It's a very bad incident," he said.

The Canadian military has been a part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan since 2002, with most Canadian soldiers working in the volatile south, in and around the city of Kandahar.  

With files from the Associated Press