Blast at Somali capital restaurant, no clear toll

Mogadishu (AFP) – A car bomb exploded at a popular seaside restaurant in the Somali capital Thursday, with intense gunfire following the blast, police said.

The casualty toll was not immediately known.

“There was a car bomb explosion at a restaurant at the Lido beach,” police officer Ahmed Bidan said, reporting “shooting and gunfire” immediately after the blast. Later calm returned to the area.

The Lido beach area in Mogadishu is busy with restaurants, including upmarket establishments popular with business people and diaspora Somalis who have returned home to the city.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents have carried out a string of similar bombings in the past.