A boy receives medical treatment after a blast at a mosque in Nangarhar province. Photo - EPA

At least 62 people have been killed and dozens injured by a bomb during Friday prayers at a mosque in Afghanistan, according to a provincial spokesman.

The force of the blast, in eastern Nangarhar province, destroyed the building’s roof, eyewitnesses said.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

The blast came the day after the UN said the number of civilian deaths in the war-torn country had reached unprecedented levels over the summer.

According to the UN, 1,174 civilians were killed between July and September, the deadliest quarter since UN records began a decade ago.

Meanwhile, a BBC study which attempted to document every killing during the month of August found a fifth of all those who lost their lives were civilians.

Attaullah Khogyani, the provincial governor’s spokesman, told the BBC that the 62 people killed and 36 more injured in Friday’s attack were worshippers.

The mosque sits in the district of Haska Mina, about 50km (30 miles) from the provincial capital Jalalabad.

Eyewitnesses reported hearing a loud explosion, before the roof of the mosque caved in. According to Afghanistan’s Tolo News, a number of explosives are believed to have been used.

“It was a heartbreaking scene I witnessed with my eyes,” tribal elder Malik Mohammadi Gul Shinwari told the Reuters news agency.