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| Somalia bomb attack: Death toll rises to 53 in huge blast at Mogadishu's Safari Hotel | Somalia bomb attack: Death toll rises to 53 in huge blast at Mogadishu's Safari Hotel |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The death toll from a huge bomb blast outside the Safari Hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu has risen to 53, security and medical sources told the Associated Press. | The death toll from a huge bomb blast outside the Safari Hotel in Somalia's capital Mogadishu has risen to 53, security and medical sources told the Associated Press. |
| More than 60 were injured in the explosion and hospitals are struggling to cope with the high number of casualties. | More than 60 were injured in the explosion and hospitals are struggling to cope with the high number of casualties. |
| Somalia's government has yet to release the exact death toll from the explosion, which many called the most powerful they had ever witnessed in Mogadishu. | |
| Officials feared the death toll would continue to climb. | |
| Many victims died at hospitals from their wounds, Police Captain Mohamed Hussein said. | |
| President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has joined thousands of people who responded to a desperate plea by hospitals to donate blood for the wounded victims. | |
| Somalia's government blamed the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabaab extremist group for the attack it called a "national disaster." However, al-Shabaab, which often targets high-profile areas of the capital with bombings, had yet to claim the attack. | |
| "They don't care about the lives of Somali people, mothers, fathers and children," Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said. | |
| "They have targeted the most populated area in Mogadishu, killing only civilians." | |
| Somalia's information minister, Abdirahman Omar, said the blast was the largest the city had ever seen. "It's a sad day. This how merciless and brutal they are, and we have to unite against them," he said, speaking to the state-run radio station. | |
| Overnight, rescue workers with torch lights searched for any survivors trapped under the rubble of the Safari Hotel, which was largely destroyed. | |
| The hotel is close to Somalia's foreign ministry. The blast blew off metal gates and blast walls erected outside the hotel. |