According to security officials, on Thursday, at least eight people were killed and 23 injured in a car explosion near a school in Somalia's capital Mogadishu.
Numerous pupils were harmed. During rush hour, the bomb exploded early in the morning, erupting a column of smoke from the explosion site amid gunshots.
Al-Shabab, an Islamist group, claimed responsibility for the incident, which occurred days after the assassination of famed Somali journalist Abdiaziz Mohamud Guled on Saturday.
UN convoy is being targeted.
According to Reuters, the attack was directed at a passing United Nations convoy.
It was unclear immediately whether any UN personnel were killed or injured in the massive bomb.
"We counted eight dead people and 17 others including 13 students injured," police spokesman Abdifatah Aden Hassan told reporters.
The explosion, which occurred in the capital center, was so powerful that it destroyed the walls of the adjoining Mucassar primary and secondary schools and damaged automobiles.
"We were shaken by the blast pressure, then deafened by the gunfire that followed," Mohamed Hussein, a nurse at neighboring Osman Hospital, told Reuters. "Our hospital's walls caved in. Opposite us is another collapsing school. I have no idea how many people died."
Aamin ambulance service in Mogadishu evacuated at least 23 persons injured in the incident.
Abdikadir Abdirahman, the ambulance service's director, tweeted photos from the scene, describing the attack as "a tragedy."
What exactly is al-Shabab?
Al-Shabab is an extremist group affiliated with al-Qaeda that has waged a brutal insurgency against Somalia's fragile government since 2007.
It has attempted to destabilize the government and impose its rigid version of Islamic law, sharia.
Al-Shabab had sway over the capital until 2011 when it was driven out by the Somali military and the African Union-mandated AMISOM (African Union Mission in Somalia) army tasked with protecting the government.
The organization retains control in the countryside and periodically attacks Mogadishu and other cities with explosives and rifle assaults.
It claimed responsibility for two assaults in September that resulted in the deaths of 17 persons.
