Al Shabaab car bomb blast kills at least six in central Mogadishu

September 2, 2018  13H:35  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Natalie Duval and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, DJIBOUTI 

DJIBOUTI - At least six people were killed when a suicide car bomb struck a local government office in central Mogadishu on Sunday, destroying the building and a Quranic school opposite.

People look at debris at the site of a blast in Mogadishu, Somalia, September 2, 2018 in this still image obtained from a social media video. MUNASAR MOHAMED/via REUTERS

Islamist militant group Al Shabaab said it was behind the attack on Hawlwadag district office, which also blew off the roof of a mosque and damaged houses nearby.

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At least six people had been killed, including soldiers, civilians and the suicide bomber, and a dozen injured, according to police officer Mohamed Hussein.

Smoke rises from the site of a blast in Mogadishu, Somalia, September 2, 2018 in this still image obtained from a social media video. MUNASAR MOHAMED/via REUTERS

The school was open but at the time of the blast most children were away from the building on a break.

Earlier the director of the Amin ambulance service told us at Reuters that at least 14 people had been were injured, including 6 children.

A Reuters journalist on the scene saw a human hand and blood stains in the rubble as people searched for survivors.

Abdiasis Abu Musab, Al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, said the group had carried out the attack.

“We are behind the suicide attack. We targeted the district office in which there was a meeting. We killed 10 people so far, we shall give details later.”

Somalia has been wracked by lawlessness and violence since 1991. Islamist group al Shabaab is fighting to dislodge a Western-backed government protected by African Union-mandated peacekeepers.