Charikar (Afghanistan), Dec 19 (IANS): The death toll from an oil tanker blast in a tunnel in Afghanistan's eastern Parwan province reached 19, Deputy to Provincial Health Directorate Abdullah Afghanmal said.

Afghanmal told media on Sunday that 19 bodies and 32 injured people from the blast had been taken to hospitals in the provincial capital Charikar and nearby health centres.

Earlier, Spokesman for the Public Work Ministry, Mawlawi Hamidullah Misbah counted 12 dead and 37 injured from the blast, Xinhua news agency reported.

Spokesman for Parwan provincial administration, Hekmatullah Shamim said that the oil tanker caught fire inside Salang Tunnel on Saturday evening, killing and injuring more than two dozen people.

The official also noted that the fire had been extinguished and the tunnel had also been reopened for traffic. However, locals at the site believed that the number of casualties could be higher than reported.

Salang Tunnel, 3,400 metre above sea level connecting Afghanistan's capital Kabul to the northern eight provinces, is an essential passway and lifeline in Afghanistan.