A Taliban insurgent wearing an explosive-packed vest infiltrated the guarded police headquarters in central Kabul on Sunday and attempted to assassinate the city's chief of police, according to Reuters.
Gen. Mohammad Zahir Zahir was not killed in the assassination attempt, and was not in his office on the third floor of the building at the time of the attack.
Zahir's chief of staff, Col. Mohammad Yasin was killed in the attack, and at least seven others were wounded, according to police and members of the health ministry. A small child was one of the wounded victims.
There are concerns over how the man entered the heavily guarded compound, one of the most heavily guarded areas of Kabul.
The compound is surrounded by high concrete blast walls, and paramilitary police armed with Russian-made PK heavy machine guns keep watch, AlJazeera.com reported.
In order to enter, visitors must pass through a number of checkpoints, including body searches and x-rays, before reaching the main buildings.
Insurgents have intensified attacks on the Afghan capital in the past year, coinciding with a drawn-out presidential election and the inauguration in September of President Ashraf Ghani, according to Al Jazeera.
The explosion came about two hours after another blast was heard in the city.
Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid Tweeted from his account: "This morning at around 9am, a martyrdom attack was carried out by Maulawi Yaya Badakhshani inside Kabul police HQ while foreign advisors and police were meeting."
Kabul is regularly hit by Taliban bombings, with the military, police and government officials among those targeted, despite heightened security with multiple checkpoints, blast walls and armed guards, according to Al Jazeera.
