Two suicide bombers struck a meeting of community leaders in a southern Afghan town near the Pakistan border yesterday, killing at least five people and wounding 15, officials said.

One gunman on foot opened fire on guards at the entrance of the council building in Spin Boldak, forced his way inside and detonated himself, while a second attacker rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into the outside walls.

The Kandahar provincial Government said that the dead were a child, a health vaccinator, a member of the shura (council), a shopkeeper and a person there to register himself for an identity card. “All the wounded were civilians who had come to the meeting to discuss their problems with shura members,” it said in a statement, adding that three people were being treated for serious injuries in Kandahar city hospital.

The building partially collapsed due the impact of the blasts, with some of the injured pulled from the rubble during a search operation to check for buried bodies.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi claimed the militants were responsible, saying eight people, mostly police, were killed, though provincial officials reported no security forces had died or been injured.

Witnesses said two explosions were heard followed by small arms fire in Spin Boldak, a volatile town 100 kilometres south of Kandahar city.

“Every on Sunday the local shura meets at the administrative building, that is where the attack happened,” said Mohammad Ali, the border police chief.

About 40 residents were attending the meeting to lodge complaints with tribal elders or to petition them for assistance.

The Taliban have waged a bloody insurgency against foreign and Afghan forces since being ousted from power in a 2001 invasion led by the United States.

Spin Boldak sits on the road from Kandahar, birthplace of the Taliban movement, to the Pakistani city of Quetta.