A suicide bomber detonated a cart laden with explosives outside of a Kandahar guest house Thursday. (Allauddin Khan/Associated Press)

At least eight people, including a child, were killed Thursday after a man driving a horse-drawn cart laden with explosives detonated the cache outside a guest house in Kandahar frequented by foreigners.

Security guards at the Continental guest house in southern Afghanistan became suspicious of the man and opened fired on him when he failed to heed their instructions, deputy provincial police chief Fazel Ahmad Sharzad said. Injured, the man then detonated his explosives, Sharzad said.

Some of the eight who died were in a car that was passing by the area. The car was destroyed, causing police to initially suspect the explosion was caused by a car bomb.

Four other people, including a guest house security guard, were injured in the blast, which occurred near the provincial council office in Kandahar, the capital of Kandahar province, a stronghold of Taliban insurgents.

"The target of the suicide attacker is unknown. We are investigating," Sharzad said.

The blast damaged several rooms and shattered windows at the guest house, but Sharzad said all the damaged rooms had been unoccupied.

Canadian soldier killed by separate explosion

A Canadian soldier was also killed Thursday near Kandahar.

Lt. Andrew Richard Nuttall died after an improvised explosive device detonated during a joint foot patrol near the village of Nakhonay in Panjwaii District, about 25 kilometres southwest of Kandahar. An Afghan interpreter was also seriously injured in the blast

Nuttall, 30, belonged to the 1st Battalion Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry based in Edmonton. A native of Victoria, he is survived by his mother Jane and father Richard.

A few hours after Nuttall's death was announced, thousands of soldiers assembled at Kandahar Airfield for a repatriation ceremony. Nuttal's body was loaded on a military aircraft for a Christmas Eve flight to Canada.