Militants launched a suicide attack on Kabul shortly after dawn, police said, with loud explosions and gunfire heard near the Afghan capital’s airport.

Several blasts and bursts of small-arms fire erupted for at least 45 minutes and were ongoing, with the US embassy sounding its “duck and cover” alarm and its loudspeakers warning that the alarm was not a drill.

Stanikzai said he was unable to confirm the target of the attack, but the explosions came from close to the airport area on the northeast side of the city.