A massive bomb attack in a busy area of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday is now known to have killed at least 230 people, police say.<\/p>\n
Hundreds more were wounded when a lorry packed with explosives detonated near the entrance of a hotel.<\/p>\n
It is the deadliest terror attack in Somalia since the Islamist al-Shabab group launched its insurgency in 2007.<\/p>\n
It is not clear who staged the bombing, but Mogadishu is a target for al-Shabab militants battling the government.<\/p>\n
President Mohamed Abdullahi “Farmajo” Mohamed has declared three days of mourning for the victims of the blast.<\/p>\n
Local media reported families gathering in the area on Sunday morning, looking for missing loved ones amid the ruins of one of the largest bombs ever to strike the city.<\/p>\n
Police official Ibrahim Mohamed told AFP news agency the death toll is likely to rise. “There are more than 300 wounded, some of them seriously,” he said.<\/p>\n
Officials also confirmed that two people were killed in a second bomb attack in the Madina district of the city.<\/p>\n
A BBC Somali reporter at the scene of the main blast said the Safari Hotel had collapsed, with people trapped under the rubble.<\/p>\n
An eyewitness, local resident Muhidin Ali, told news agency AFP it was “the biggest blast I have ever witnessed, it destroyed the whole area”.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the director of the Madina Hospital, Mohamed Yusuf Hassan, said he was shocked by the scale of the attack.<\/p>\n
“Seventy-two wounded people were admitted to the hospital and 25 of them are in very serious condition. Others lost their hands and legs at the scene.<\/p>\n
“What happened yesterday was incredible, I have never seen such a thing before, and countless people lost their lives. Corpses were burned beyond recognition.”<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A massive bomb attack in a busy area of the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday is now known to have killed at least 230 people, police say. Hundreds more were wounded when a lorry packed with explosives detonated near the entrance of a hotel. It is the deadliest terror attack in Somalia since the Islamist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[107],"tags":[1017,1018],"yoast_head":"\n