Kabul city – which is currently heavily fortified following a string of deadly attacks last month – once again became the scene of indiscriminate celebratory shooting after two local MMA fighters beat foreign rivals in Dubai on Friday night.

According to the ministry of interior, the shooting, which was widespread across the city and lasted for about half an hour, was carried out primarily by security forces and by security guards belonging to influential people.

“The firing was done either by (people with) licensed guns, by guns owned by security force members or by those who serve as security guards for (senior) security officials,” Interior Ministry spokesman Najib Danish told TOLOnews.

The ministry, he said, has arrested five people in connection with the shootings.

Kabul residents however sharply criticized the move, saying that security forces failed to prevent such action.

“It was terrifying and I had to find a safe place with my children when the gunfire started,” Saleh Ahmadi Basim, a Kabul resident, said.

“These shootings are terrible as they can threaten people’s lives, children’s lives, who play outside in the streets,” Kabul resident Mursal said.

Social media pages were filled with posts against the move on Friday night and Saturday and hundreds of people expressed their anger over the indiscriminate shooting.

“It is really worrying,” a former military officer, Atiqullah Amarkhail, told TOLOnews.

“When such incidents happen, you feel that there is no government, they (Interior Ministry) do not have the power and do not want to prevent anything.”

Sources say that at least 90,000 guns have been distributed in recent years across the country. Among them, more than 45,000 guns have been issued with new licenses.

The Ministry of Interior has said it will apply a new mechanism in this respect. Based on this mechanism, the ministry will renew licenses of all firearms.