A health official checks a passenger's body temperature at a traveler screening point in Shiberghan city, capital of Jawzjan province, Afghanistan, March 15, 2020. Photo: Xinhua

Two policemen and four other people were killed in Afghanistan on Saturday after a deadly clash at a public food donation in central Ghor province, officials said.

Hundreds of people had gathered outside the governor's office in the provincial capital Firozkoh, where a Qatari group was distributing aid. 

Some of those who had queued up to receive aid staged a protest against what they saw as "unjust distribution of food items to poor families," Abdul Rahman Akshan, deputy head of Ghor's provincial council told AFP.

He said that many protesters tried to barge into the governor's office, leading to clashes between them and police present at the site.

"The protesters opened fire on the police," the provincial governor's spokesman Aref Haber said.

"Four civilians, including an employee of a local radio and two policemen were killed," Haber said in a statement, adding that 19 people were also wounded.

The interior ministry confirmed the death toll in a statement, saying "some illegal armed men in the mob attacked the government building," which prompted police to fire into the air to disperse the crowd.

Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh said the attack was "shocking" and announced that the "government was seriously investigating the incident" in a Facebook post.

However, the chief of the Afghanistan Human Rights Commission Shaharzad Akbar wrote on Twitter that there were "worrying reports of police firing at protesters in Ghor."

AFP