Monday, October 16, 2017

Death toll truck bomb Mugadishu above 300

 The death toll in the bombing that hit the centre of Mogadishu on Saturday continues to rise, with more than 300 people now believed to have been killed and hundreds more seriously injured.
The scale of the loss makes the attack, which involved a truck packed with several hundred kilograms of military-grade and homemade explosives, one of the most lethal terrorist acts anywhere in the world for many years.
On Monday morning, Somalia’s information minister announced that 276 people had died in the attack with at least 300 people injured. Within hours, however, Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of Amin ambulances, said his service had confirmed that 300 people died in the blast.
“The death toll will still be higher because some people are still missing,” Abdirahman told Reuters.
More victims continue to be dug from the rubble spread over an area hundreds of metres wide in the centre of the city.
Rescue workers said a definitive death toll may never be established because the intense heat generated by the blast meant the remains of many people would not be found.
Others may have been buried quickly by relatives.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
Emergency services were overstretched and worked late into the night as they tried to rescue people who were trapped in the destroyed buildings.
The city's mayor called on residents to donate blood as hospitals were running out of blood.
"I call on the Somali people to visit the city's hospitals and donate blood. Please, come to the rescue of your brothers," Thabit Abdi Mohammed, told reporters after donating blood at a local hospital.
The attack came 48 hours after both the defence minister and army chief of the country resigned from their posts without explanation.

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