Mogadishu car bomb blast leaves at least 76 dead

2 min read . Updated: 28 Dec 2019, 03:34 PM ISTAFP

• A truck bomb exploded at a busy security checkpoint in Somalia's capital Saturday morning, authorities said
• It was one of the deadliest attacks in Mogadishu in recent memory

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Mogadishu Blast

A massive car bomb exploded in a busy area of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday, leaving at least 76 people dead and scores injured, an ambulance official said.

The blast occurred in a busy area of the city where traffic is heavy because of a security checkpoint and a tax office.

The wounded were carried on stretchers from the site, where the force of the explosion left charred and twisted remains of vehicles.

Mogadishu is regularly hit by car bombings and attacks waged by Al-Shabaab Islamist militants allied to Al-Qaeda.

"The number of casualties we have confirmed is 76 dead and 70 wounded, it could still be higher," the director of the private Aamin Ambulance service, Abdukadir Abdirahman Haji, told AFP

Police officer Ibrahim Mohamed described the explosion as "devastating".

'Dead bodies scattered'

Mogadishu's mayor Omar Mohamud Mohamed told a press conference that the exact number of dead was not yet known, but that around 90 peoploe were wounded.

"We will confirm the exact number of the number of the dead later but it is not going to be small, most of the dead were innocent university students and other civilians," he said.

'Dead bodies scattered'

Mogadishu's mayor Omar Mohamud Mohamed told a press conference that the exact number of dead was not yet known, but that around 90 peoploe were wounded.

"We will confirm the exact number of the number of the dead later but it is not going to be small, most of the dead were innocent university students and other civilians," he said.

Since 2015, there have been 13 attacks in Somalia with 20 or more killed, 11 of which have been in Mogadishu, according to a tally of AFP figures.

All of them involved car bombs.

The deadliest attack in the country's history was a truck bombing in October 2017 in Mogadishu which left 512 people dead and around 295 injured.

This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.