AKIPRESS.COM - Twelve people, including seven students, three police and two security guards, were killed in an attack by gunmen on the American University in the Afghan capital, Kabul, police said on Thursday.

Fraidoon Obaidi, chief of the Kabul police Criminal Investigation Department, told Reuters 44 people were wounded, including 35 students, Reuters reported.

Security forces killed two suspected militants to end the attack on the compound, which began on Wednesday evening with a large explosion followed by gunfire, a police official said earlier.

"Many students jumped from the second floor, some broke their legs and some hurt their head trying to escape," Abdullah Fahimi, a student who escaped, told Reuters. He injured his ankle making the leap.

"We were in the class when we heard a loud explosion followed by gunfire. It was very close. Some students were crying, others were screaming."

A senior interior ministry official said that elite Afghan forces had surrounded the university and witnesses at the scene said special forces had entered the walled compound where gunfire that had lasted for more than an hour had since stopped.