At least three people were killed and 17 others injured by an explosion Saturday at a restaurant in Mogadishu, witnesses and medical officials said.
Mogadishu ambulance services told VOA they evacuated two dead bodies and took 17 injured people to the hospital. Mogadishu’s Medina hospital confirmed one fatality.
The explosion occurred just after 7 p.m. local time near Tarabunka area in the Hodan district of the capital.
A witness told VOA that a remote-controlled explosive device planted in the restaurant is believed to be the cause of the explosion.
Gunfire has been heard after the explosion.
The restaurant is popular among Somali government soldiers who are stationed at a nearby base.
“The soldiers come here to have tea, food and chew khat,” a witness told VOA Somali.
Khat is a green narcotic stimulant widely chewed in East Africa.
