Civilians evacuate from the scene of an explosion in KM4 street in the Hodan district of Mogadishu, Somalia.

:: More than 20 people were killed when a car bomb exploded on a busy street in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu on Saturday, a police official said.

“Initial reports from emergency departments indicate more than 20 bodies picked up off the street and many more are under the wreckage of buildings destroyed by the blast”, said Ibrahim Mohamed, a senior police officer.

Government security official Mohamed Aden said that bombing took place in a busy part of the city.

“There was a huge blast caused by a truck loaded with explosives. It went off at the entrance of a hotel alongside the K5 intersection,” he said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the al-Qaeda aligned Shabaab carries out frequent suicide bombings in the capital and elsewhere as it fights to overthrow the internationally-backed government.