Several dead as car bomb targets restaurant in Somalia's Mogadishu

At least 20 people have been killed and 30 wounded by a suicide car bomb just outside a restaurant near the port in Somalia's capital Mogadishu late on Friday, an emergency services official said.

The blast sent plumes of smoke into the sky and triggered gunfire, witnesses and state-owned media reported.

"So far we have carried 20 dead people and 30 injured from the blast scene," Dr. Abdulkadir Aden, founder of AAMIN Ambulance services told Reuters.

The blast occurred at the Luul Yemeni restaurant near the port, witnesses said.

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Somali Information Ministry spokesperson Ismael Mukhtaar Omar said in a statement on Twitter: “A car bomb has exploded outside the Luul Yemeni restaurant near the port city of Mogadishu. Reports from Hamarjajab district in Benadir region say that there were casualties as a result of the blast.”

"A speeding car exploded at Luul Yemeni restaurant. I was going to the restaurant but ran back when the blast shook and covered the area with smoke," resident Ahmed Abdullahi, who lives near the site, told Reuters.

Somalia's state-controlled Radio Mogadishu reported there was also destruction of property and that police had cordoned off the area.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. 

But Somalia-based Al Qaeda-affiliated group Al Shabab had claimed responsibility for several recent attacks in the country.

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