No one injured as car explodes near popular Mogadishu beach

Residents relax on Lido beach on October 31, 2014 along the Indian Ocean’s coastal city of Mogadishu, site of Thursday’s attacks. Image: Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP/Getty Images

MOGADISHU (Xinhua) — A car loaded with explosives went off on Monday in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, targeting a popular beach restaurant, police and witnesses said.

Zakia Hussein, police spokeswoman, confirmed that a parked car filled with explosives detonated at a round 6:30 p.m. local time near Lido beach, but did not kill or injure anyone.

“At the time of Iftar at 6:30 p.m., a Toyota filler vehicle went off near Liido beach roundabout in Mogadishu causing damages but no casualties,” Hussein said in a brief statement.

A police officer who declined to be named told Xinhua that a car laden with explosives went off near Lido beach in Mogadishu’s Abdulaziz district, but no one was hurt.

Witnesses said the explosion was loud and shook the area.

“I was at a restaurant near where the car exploded, we felt panic and ran for our safety,” Omar Abdi, a witness, told Xinhua.

The blast came barely five days after a car bomb detonated at a police checkpoint in Bondhere district leaving four people dead and 12 others injured.

The blast comes as the police tightened the security of the capital blocking the main roads in the city to ward off possible attacks by the militants.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but al-Qaida allied group al-Shabab conducted such attacks in the past.