At least seven people were killed and several others wounded after a car bomb exploded near a marketplace in Somalia's capital Mogadishu today, a city official said.
The blast occurred alongside a densely populated road near Hamarweyne market, an area where bombings claimed by the Islamist Shabaab insurgency have previously occurred.
"The blast was caused by a luxurious car loaded with explosives, which was detonated at a civilian, densely- populated area, and seven people were killed and several others wounded," city administration spokesman Abdifatah Omar Halane told reporters.
A witness to the blast, Ismail Ali, described the explosive-laden car detonating in the middle of the road as it was moving.
"There were eight people killed and most of them died in a civilian minibus which was passing by the area where the vehicle went off," said Abdinasir Mohamed, another witness who gave a slightly higher death toll that authorities did not confirm.
The Al-Qaeda affiliated Shabaab have been fighting to overthrow the internationally backed government in Somalia since 2007 and have repeatedly attacked civilian and military targets with gunmen and suicide bombers.
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