Kabul, Sep 20 (IANS): At least five policemen were killed in a bomb attack in an eastern Afghan province while 23 civilians were wounded in the neighbouring area in an improvised explosive device explosion, authorities said on Sunday.

"A police van was travelling from Zurmat district of Paktia province towards its capital Gardez city in the morning. The vehicle ran over a roadside bomb along the road and the blast killed five policemen aboard the van," provincial police chief Zulmai Uryakhel told Xinhua.

The police vehicle was destroyed by the blast in the province, some 100 km south of Afghan capital of Kabul.

In eastern Kunar province, a total of 23 civilians sustained injuries after an IED went off at the middle of a local market in provincial capital Asadabad city, 185 km east of Kabul, according to a provincial medical source.

"The explosion occurred at around midday. The injured were shifted to hospitals where at least eight of them remained in critical condition," Assadullah Fazli said.