Sixteen people including 11 children were killed when a bus hit a roadside bomb in western Afghanistan on Tuesday, a local government official said.

"At around 1:00 pm (0830 GMT) today a passenger bus returning from a wedding party hit a roadside bomb in Shindand district, killing 16 people," said Mohayedin Noori, spokesman for the Herat provincial government.

He added that 11 children, four women and one man were among the dead. Herat police spokesman Noor Khan Neikzad blamed the attack on the Taliban. "The area in which the incident has happened is restive, the Taliban are active there," he said. "We believe they are responsible for killing the civilians."The Taliban were not immediately reachable for comment.Roadside bombs are a major cause of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, killing hundreds of people every year.