At least 15 people died when a car bomb exploded on a busy street and ripped into a nearby restaurant in Somalia's capital on Thursday, medics said. Security officials and witnesses reported bodies strewn on the ground as plumes of smoke rose high into the air after the bomb detonated on Mogadishu's Maka Al-Mukarama road, one of the seaside capital's main thoroughfares, an area busy with businesses and travellers.
It struck as people were eating lunch. The attack was claimed by Al-Qaeda's Somali affiliate Al-Shabaab, in a statement posted on a pro-Shabaab website. Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan, director of the Aamin Ambulance service, said that 15 people had been killed, as well as several more wounded by the ferocious blast.