About 231 people have died Saturday following a blast in Somalia’s capital that is being called the deadliest in the country’s history.
A truck bomb blew up in the middle of a street in Mogadishu, also leaving 275 people injured, according to the Associated Press. CNN is reporting the attack as a double car bomb.
“With a heavy heart I would say this is the worst attack I have ever witnessed,” Masoud Mohamed, who lost family members in the blast, told the AP. Many residents of the city, which has been accustomed to attacks from the terror group Al-Shabaab, agreed with Mohamed.
There have been no claims of responsibility.
A survey of the blast site showed destroyed buildings, and remnants of a busy city life brought to a halt. Qatar’s Embassy was also severely damaged, according to a statement from its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“The perpetrators struck a densely populated neighborhood of Mogadishu. They have killed an unprecedented number of civilians. It is a revolting attack both in terms of its intent and impact,” Michael Keating, special representative of the United Nations secretary-general for Somalia, told CNN.