More than seven million children in Afghanistan are said to be at risk of hunger as food prices soar owing to the coronavirus pandemic.

A Save the Children spokesman said the country is faced with a severe storm of hunger, disease and death” unless the international community took action.

The charity warned that a third of the population, which includes 7.3 million children, are currently facing food shortages.

The UN recently included Afghanistan in a list of countries at risk of famine.

Afghanistan has suffered almost two decades of war since US-led forces ousted the Taliban in 2001, leaving it with a fractured and impoverished healthcare system.

As cases of coronavirus spread, the government imposed a lockdown in the capital, Kabul, at the end of March and other provinces quickly followed.

Movement other than shopping for basic necessities is said to be severely restricted and travelling between cities is banned.