23 June, 2017
Mogadishu - A suicide auto bomber on Thursday targeted a police station in the Somali capital Mogadishu, killing at least six people, police said.
Ambulance sirens echoed across Mogadishu, with dozens of soldiers at the scene.
"We carried seven dead people and 12 others injured from the scene", Abdikadir Abdirahman, director of the Amin ambulance service, told Reuters.
No group has yet claimed responsibility for the auto bomb attack. Authorities reported damage to the police station, saying the attacker had tried to drive into the gate of the facility but detonated the explosives against the wall instead. On Tuesday, at least 15 people were killed when a suicide vehicle bomber posing as a milk delivery van detonated at a district headquarters in Mogadishu.
"The incident took place when the police officers were holding a meeting at the station", said the officer who declined to be named. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility.
Although pushed out of the capital in 2011, the group still controls parts of the countryside and launches regular suicide bombings and raids in the capital against civilian, government and military targets.
Authorities say the attacker was targeting the police station and tried to ram into the front gate, however; the vehicle blew up next to a wall surrounding the facility.
Somali security forces gather at the scene of a suicide vehicle bomb.
Recent estimates suggest al-Shabab has outpaced other militant groups in Africa by killing more than 4,200 people in 2016.
Witnesses said a local radio station, Radio Mustaqbal which is not far from the scene, was shut down immediately the bomb hit the police station.
