2019 Photo Contest, Spot News, 3rd Prize

Ambulance Bomb

Photographer

Andrew Quilty

Agence Vu

27 January, 2018

Rahela, her face bloodied by shattered glass from the shop where she had been with her sister (right), is helped from the scene of a street bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, before being taken to hospital.

An ambulance packed with explosives killed 103 people and injured 235 in Kabul, Afghanistan, on 27 January. The ambulance had passed through one security point unnoticed, but although the attacker was identified at a second checkpoint, he couldn’t be stopped from detonating his explosives. The bombing took place at lunchtime near Chicken Street, a central shopping area once popular among foreign nationals, and close to government and diplomatic buildings. The victims, however, were overwhelmingly Afghan civilians and police. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the ambulance bombing, which ranked among the worst civilian attacks in the Afghan capital in some years. Taliban commanders said they were intensifying urban attacks in retaliation for increased airstrikes on areas under their control.

About the photographer

Andrew Quilty

Andrew Quilty’s photography career began in Sydney, 2000, on the day his application to a university photo elective was rejected. He quit, and set off around Australia...

Technical information

Shutter Speed
1/1600
Focal length
35 mm
F-Stop
f/5.6
ISO
200
Camera
NIKON D850

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