An Afghan worker is seen at a wedding hall after a deadly bomb blast in Kabul on Sunday. At least 63 people were killed and scores wounded in an explosion targeting a wedding in the Afghan capital, which is the deadliest attack in Kabul in recent months. Photo: VCG

Joy and celebration turned into horror and carnage when a suicide bomber targeted a packed Afghan wedding hall, killing at least 63 people in the deadliest attack to rock Kabul in months, officials and witnesses said Sunday.

The massive blast, which took place late Saturday in west Kabul, came as Washington and the Taliban finalize a deal to reduce the US military presence in Afghanistan and hopefully build a roadmap to a cease-fire.

The groom recalled greeting smiling guests in the afternoon, before seeing their bodies being carried out hours later.

The attack "changed my happiness to sorrow," the young man, who gave his name as Mirwais, told local TV station Tolo News.

"My family, my bride are in shock, they cannot even speak. My bride keeps fainting," he said.

"I lost my brother, I lost my friends, I lost my relatives. I will never see happiness in my life again."

Interior Ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi said at least 63 people had been killed and 182 injured.

"Among the wounded are women and children," Rahimi said. Earlier he stated a suicide bomber carried out the attack.

Afghan weddings are epic and vibrant affairs, with hundreds or often thousands of guests celebrating for hours inside industrial-scale wedding halls where the men are usually segregated from the women and children.

"The wedding guests were dancing and celebrating the party when the blast happened," recounted Munir Ahmad, 23, who was seriously injured and whose cousin was among the dead.

"Following the explosion, there was total chaos. Everyone was screaming and crying for their loved ones," he told AFP from his bed in a local hospital, where he is being treated for shrapnel wounds.

Images from inside the hall showed blood-stained bodies on the ground along with pieces of flesh and torn clothes, hats, sandals and bottles of mineral water. The huge blast ripped parts of the ceiling off.

The wedding was believed to be a Shia gathering. Shia Muslims are frequently targeted in Sunni-majority Afghanistan, particularly by the so-called Islamic State group, which is also active in Kabul but did not immediately issue any claim of responsibility.

Wedding guest Hameed Quresh told AFP that the young couple were saying their vows when the bomb went off. 

"We fainted following the blast, and we don't know who brought us to the hospital," sobbed Quresh, who lost one brother and was himself wounded.

Another guest told Tolo that some 1,200 people had been invited. With low security, weddings are seen as easy targets. The attack sent a wave of grief through a city grimly accustomed to atrocities. President Ashraf Ghani called it "barbaric," while Afghanistan's chief executive Abdullah Abdullah described it as a "crime against humanity."