By Xinhua,
Mogadishu : At least 15 people were killed and more than 40 wounded Sunday after a roadside bomb exploded in the north of the Somali capital.
“At least 10 women municipal street sweepers died instantly after the bomb exploded shortly before they were to start work,” Mohamed Dahir, an eyewitness, told reporters.
Five people succumbed to their injuries at the hospital, health officials at the capital’s main Medina hospital said, adding that there was a big crowd of the injured at the hospital.
“I have never seen the like of it before. Most of the wounded people are dismembered,” Dahir Dheere, a senior doctor and manager of Medina hospital told reporters.
The huge explosion could be heard around the restive coastal capital.
Five people were killed last year after a bomb exploded as they were sweeping streets in the south of Mogadishu.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.
It is not clear if the bomb was planted in the area or whether it is one of the many unexploded ordnance scattered in Somalia during the civil conflict.
The explosion came as political crises in Somalia was deepening with two thirds ministers of the Somali cabinet resigning after Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein sacked the mayor of Mogadishu.