Five people were killed when a powerful car bomb exploded late Sunday at a cafe in the Somali capital Mogadishu that was packed with soccer fans watching the Euro 2024 final between Spain and England.
Videos of the scene posted online showed a huge fireball and billows of smoke. The explosion literally tore apart the popular downtown restaurant.
"A car bomb exploded tonight in front of the Top Cafe restaurant...planted by the Harijit terrorists," the Somali National News Agency reported, referring to the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab jihadist group.
"Preliminary police reports confirm five deaths and around 20 injured," police spokesman Major Abdifita Aden Hassan said.
Firefighters, police and ambulances are at the scene of the explosion.
Police cordoned off the area, which is near the presidential palace complex known as Villa Somalia.
Al-Shabaab has waged a bloody insurgency against Somalia's fragile federal government for more than 17 years and has carried out numerous bombings in Mogadishu and other parts of the country. | BGNES
