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At least 2 killed in Mogadishu car bomb blast

09 November 2013 01:40 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least two people were killed on Friday evening in a car bomb explosion which hit a hotel in Mogadishu, capital of Somalia, witnesses said, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Witnesses told Xinhua that at least two people were killed in the explosion and that the number could rise because some were severely injured.

Mogadishu's deputy mayor in charge of security has confirmed the blast.

"We learned a vehicle with explosives was left outside the hotel and we believe it was remotely detonated," said deputy mayor Warsame Mohamed Hassan.

The explosion targeted the Makka Almukarrama Hotel, located at a key road with the same name that connects the Somali government's main installations.

Reports indicate that the vehicle went off outside the gate of the hotel and that several people, mainly hotel guards and passers- by were injured.

So far no group has claimed responsibility for the explosion but the radical Islamist group of Al-Shabaab have carried out similar attacks against popular eateries and hotels in Mogadishu.