A large car bomb has exploded close to the gate of Mogadishu's international airport, causing casualties.
"A car was parked near the airport gate. It detonated. There are casualties," police official Mohammed Abdi Rahman said on Thursday.
The Mogadishu airport complex also houses the base of AMISOM - the African Union force fighting al-Qaeda-linked Shebab rebels - as well as a number of foreign diplomatic missions and United Nations offices.
Britain's ambassador to Somalia Neil Wigan, whose embassy is also within the high-security airport complex, said on Twitter that he had heard a "major explosion" that sent smoke into the air.
