A massive explosion rocked Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Thursday morning, leaving at least five people dead.
Gatekeepers News reports that the blast which occurred near the K4 junction in the heart of the city triggered a plume of smoke, according to witnesses who said they heard sounds of gunfire.
“So far we know five people died and 23 others (were) injured,” Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of Aamin Ambulance services, told the Reuters news agency.
Mohamed Hussein, a nurse at the nearby Osman Hospital, told Reuters that they “were shaken by the blast pressure, then deafened by the gunfire that followed.”
Hussein said he had been pulled from the rubble of a collapsed ceiling. “Our hospital walls collapsed. Opposite us is a school that also collapsed. I do not know how many died,” he said.
Nearby schools were also affected by the explosion and cars were not spared either.
Gatekeepers News reports that Somalia armed group, Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack.
The group’s military operations spokesman, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab told Reuters that the explosion was aimed at a United Nations convoy.
Al-Shabab said in a statement carried by its Andalus radio that it was going after Western officials being escorted by the African Union peacekeeping convoy.
The al-Qaeda-linked armed group has been fighting Somalia’s central government for years to establish its own rule based on its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
