13 people have died in central Somalia after a suicide bomber drove a truck packed with explosives towards a security checkpoint and then triggered it.
According to the police, Emergency workers used bulldozers to clear the trash as they recovered bodies and rescued people trapped under rubble after the blast in the town of Beledweyne in the Hiran region.
“What has happened here is a heinous act,” Abdulahi Ahmed Malim, the governor of Hiran, told reporters at the scene.
“This was a disaster today and the damage it has inflicted is not small, it destroyed the whole area,” he said.
“We have recovered the bodies of 13 people, most of them civilians who stayed nearby,” Ahmed Yare Adan, a local police officer said.
“There are about 45 wounded people admitted to medical facilities. Some of these people are seriously wounded and they are all civilians,” he said.
Police officer Abdukadir Yasin, who rushed to the scene after the blast, said rescuers were pulled wounded victims to safety from under the debris.
“The destruction caused is immense, more than 10 dead bodies have been confirmed already and the death toll could be higher,” he said.
