AFP reporters at the site counted at least 30 bodies as medical teams worked to help the wounded, who were taken to several hospitals for treatment, according to a source working with the rescue operation.

Health ministry spokesman Sharafat Zaman told AFP: "The preliminary reports are that so far we have more than 200 martyrs and more than 200 injured."

But he added: "As the rescue operations are still going on, we cannot give the exact number at this moment."

Zaman said that there were some 3,000 addicts at the centre from across Afghanistan at the time.

Dejan Panic, Afghan director of the Italian NGO Emergency, said it had received three bodies after the strike on Monday night and were treating 27 wounded.

Pakistan has denied targeting the centre and instead said it carried out precision strikes on "military installations and terrorist support infrastructure" in the Afghan capital and in the eastern border province of Nangarhar.

qb-wk-ash-iw/phz/js