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AFP
Mogadishu
A massive car bomb exploded in a busy area of Mogadishu on Saturday, leaving at least 79 people dead and scores injured in Somalia’s deadliest attack in two years.
At least 16 of those killed were students from the capital’s private Banadir University, who had been travelling on a bus when the car bomb detonated at a busy intersection southwest of the Somali capital.
Scores of wounded were carried on stretchers from the site, where the force of the explosion left the charred and twisted remains of vehicles. Two Turkish nationals were also killed, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.
The area was often clogged with traffic due to a security checkpoint and a tax office collecting fees from buses and trucks passing through.
The attack has not been claimed, however Mogadishu is regularly hit by car bombings and attacks waged by Al-Shabaab militants allied to Al-Qaeda.
Somali police chief Abdi Hassan Mohamed told reporters that the “devastating” circumstances had made it hard to establish the number of casualties.
“Now, we can elaborate on the death toll which stands 79 at the moment and the wounded are 100 plus. There can be one or two more people who may be dead due to the high numbers of those injured,” he said.
Mogadishu
A massive car bomb exploded in a busy area of Mogadishu on Saturday, leaving at least 79 people dead and scores injured in Somalia’s deadliest attack in two years.
At least 16 of those killed were students from the capital’s private Banadir University, who had been travelling on a bus when the car bomb detonated at a busy intersection southwest of the Somali capital.
Scores of wounded were carried on stretchers from the site, where the force of the explosion left the charred and twisted remains of vehicles. Two Turkish nationals were also killed, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Twitter.
The area was often clogged with traffic due to a security checkpoint and a tax office collecting fees from buses and trucks passing through.
The attack has not been claimed, however Mogadishu is regularly hit by car bombings and attacks waged by Al-Shabaab militants allied to Al-Qaeda.
Somali police chief Abdi Hassan Mohamed told reporters that the “devastating” circumstances had made it hard to establish the number of casualties.
“Now, we can elaborate on the death toll which stands 79 at the moment and the wounded are 100 plus. There can be one or two more people who may be dead due to the high numbers of those injured,” he said.
