AT LEAST 32 people have been killed in a horrific suicide bombing attack in Africa.
Terrorists, believed to be from Al-Qaeda linked group Al-Shabaab, opened fire at a popular tourist resort in Somalia also wounding 63 people.
ReutersPeople crowd around an ambulance at the scene of the attack[/caption]
ReutersPeople carry the dead body of an unidentified person killed in the blast[/caption]
Horrific footage and pictures from the beach showed bodies strewn across the sand as emergency services rushed to help.
The explosion was set off as people swam at the popular Lido beach in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu late on Friday.
Local police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan told press at the scene that security forces rushed to the beach and killed “all five gunmen”.
Cops said one of the attackers had blown himself up, while three others had been killed by security forces.
The fifth was captured by police alive.
One horrified witness, Abdilatif Ali, told AFP: “Everybody was panicked and it was hard to know what was happening because shooting started soon after the blast.
“I saw many people strewn (on the ground) and some of them were dead and others wounded.”
Another man who saw the attack unfold from a nearby hotel, said: “I saw wounded people at the beach side, people were screaming in panic, and it was hard to notice who was dead and who was still alive.”
And Mohamud Moalim told AP that he saw one of the attackers wearing an explosive vest just before he “‘blew himself up next to the beach-view hotel”.
Islamic extremist terror group Al-Shabaab has previously claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the area.
It used to control huge areas in Somalia, including in the capital, before local and international efforts successfully pushed them back.
Former prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire said: “The fact that the terrorist attack coincides with this night when the beach is the most congested shows the hostility of the terrorists to the Somali people.”
AlamyLido beach in Mogadishu, Somalia[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
