It was not immediately clear whether the blasts late yesterday on the edge of the relatively peaceful western city of Herat were the result of an accident or caused by a militant attack.
"Around midnight (Monday) a gas tanker exploded which triggered blasts in a gas storage plant, killing 11 people and injuring 10 others," Herat police spokesman Abdul Rauf Ahmadi told AFP.
The explosions triggered a plume of flames into the night sky, which rapidly spread to a nearby settlement of mud houses for internally displaced people where most of the deaths occurred.
A resident of the hillside settlement, who lost a 9-year- old daughter in the fire, said many of the victims were trying to flee the towering flames.
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"The explosions were powerful and sparked a huge fire," said the man, who had sought refuge in Herat after fleeing the neighbouring restive province of Badghis.
"After the first explosion everyone started to flee the area and got caught up in the flames," he added, reluctant to give his name.
Mourners gathered at the settlement for funeral prayers this morning, with turbaned pall bearers seen carrying bodies for burial on makeshift stretchers.
Herat province, a key business hub located in western Afghanistan near the border with Iran, is a relatively peaceful province in a country convulsed by an ascendant 14- year Taliban insurgency.
But in May last year four insurgent gunmen launched a pre-dawn attack on India's consulate in Herat before being repelled by security forces, in an assault highlighting the precarious security situation in the country.
And at least four Afghans were killed in September 2013 in a Taliban suicide attack on the US consulate in the city.