At least 100 people were killed and 300 injured in two car bombs that exploded outside the education ministry in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, the country’s president said.
“Our people who were massacred … included mothers with their children in their arms, fathers who had medical conditions, students who were sent to study, businessmen who were struggling with the lives of their families,” President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said after visiting the site of blast.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, although the president blamed the Islamist group al Shabaab. Al Shabaab typically avoids claiming responsibility for attacks that results in large numbers of casualties.
The first of the explosions hit the education ministry near a busy junction in Mogadishu. The second occurred as ambulances arrived and people gathered to help the victims.
The blast wave smashed windows in the vicinity. Blood covered the tarmac just outside the building.
