At least 231 people were killed and hundreds were injured when a powerful truck bomb exploded in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday.
Somalia's government blamed the attack on the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab group and called it the deadliest ever to hit the country.
The explosion occurred near the Safari Hotel, where rescuers dug through the rubble of collapsed buildings at night in search of survivors. Witnesses described a devastating scene of large-scale carnage as doctors worked feverishly to treat the dead and wounded, many of whom suffered severe burns.
“The hospital is overflowing with both dead and wounded,” said Dr. Mohamed Yusuf, director of Medina Hospital, located near the blast site. said Associated Press. “We've also taken in people whose limbs were cut off by the bomb. It's truly horrific, unlike any other case in the past.”
Photos and video of the explosion, which took place on a busy street near a part of the city where foreign embassies are located, showed collapsed walls, twisted metal and sporadic fires belching smoke. The Qatari government said its embassy was “severely damaged” in the strike.
The truck bombing in Mogadishu is the deadliest so far in conflict-torn Somalia. Here are other major attacks: https://t.co/owNEZlqslj pic.twitter.com/HxUaSA85q2
— AFP Africa (@AFPAfrica) October 15, 2017
Family members searched the wreckage and waited at local hospitals in hopes of finding relatives who survived the bombing.
Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared three days of mourning. The attacks received international condemnation, including from the United States.
