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Somalia's deadliest ever blast kills 300

Hospitals are overwhelmed a day after a truck bomb targeted a crowded Mogadishu street, killing more than 300 people.

A collapsed building after a massive truck bomb went off in Mogadishu

People gather at the scene of a massive truck bomb that collapsed a hotel building in Mogadishu. (AAP) Source: AAP

The death toll from a massive truck bombing in Somalia's capital is now over 300, as the country reels from the deadliest single attack it's ever experienced.

Dr Abdulkadir Adam of Aamin Ambulance service said more people had died of their wounds in the past few hours.

Funerals have started, and the death toll is expected to rise again.

Saturday's truck bombing targeted a crowded street in Mogadishu, and about 300 others were injured. Somalia's government is blaming the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab extremist group, which has not commented.

Officials said more than 70 critically injured people were being airlifted to Turkey for treatment on Monday as international aid began to arrive.

Nervous relatives stood on the tarmac at the airport, praying for the recovery of their loved ones.

Overwhelmed hospitals in Mogadishu were struggling to assist other badly wounded victims, many burned beyond recognition.

The attack was one of the worst in the world in recent years. It is one of the deadliest attacks in sub-Saharan Africa, larger than the Garissa University attack in Kenya in 2015 and the US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Information Minister Abdirahman Osman said other countries including Kenya and Ethiopia had already offered to send medical aid in response to what Somali's government has called a "national disaster."

The country's Somali-American leader, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, has declared three days of mourning and joined thousands of people who responded to a desperate plea by hospitals to donate blood.

"This is really horrendous, unlike any other time in the past," said Dr. Mohamed Yusuf, the director of Medina hospital.


2 min read

Published

Source: AAP



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