KABUL: A policeman was killed along with two others and five people were left injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up near a cricket stadium in Kabul on Wednesday. The attacker detonated the bomb after he was stopped at a security checkpoint as he walked towards the stadium where a local match was under way. “The security forces by sacrificing themselves have prevented the attacker from reaching the crowd (inside the stadium) and creating a catastrophe,” police spokesman Basir Mujahid said. Two of the wounded were also police officers. Several ambulances were seen speeding away from the scene, apparently taking the injured to hospital. The blast happened during a cricket match inside the stadium, Farid Hotak, a spokesman for the Afghanistan Cricket Board, told sources. The game was briefly interrupted, Hotak said, adding “all players and cricket board officials were kept safe”. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack as yet, but both the Taliban and Islamic State have carried out similar attacks previously. The attacker targeted a fixture of the Shpageeza Cricket League, Afghanistan’s annual domestic T20 tournament which features six teams and runs from 11 September until 22 September.