Dozens of people have been killed and scores wounded following a suicide bombing and gun attack at a popular beach in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said on Saturday.
"More than 32 civilians died in this attack, and about 63 others were wounded, some of them critically," police spokesman Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters, increasing the initial death toll from seven.
A suicide bomber detonated a device late Friday along the busy Lido Beach -- popular with business people and officials and the scene of previous attacks -- before gunmen stormed the area, witnesses said.
"The merciless terrorists shot civilians randomly," police officer Mohamed Omar told AFP news agency on Saturday.
"There were wounded people as well but most of the civilians were rescued by the security forces," he said.
"The security forces ended the siege and killed all the five gunmen Kharijites who have attacked innocent civilians who were spending time at the beach," Omar said, using the term officials adopt to describe the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab terrorist group. Al-Shabaab has claimed has said it carried out the beach attack.
A sixth member of the group "blew himself at the beach", he said.
'Everybody panicked'
Witnesses said there were many people at the popular location when the explosion occurred, describing how gunmen then stormed the area.
"Everybody was panicked and it was hard to know what was happening because shooting started soon after the blast," witness Abdilatif Ali told AFP.
Former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire has condemned the attack. The explosion occurred while residents were swimming on Lido beach, causing deaths and injuries, Khaire said on his X account.
"I send my deepest condolences to the families, relatives and friends of those who were martyred in these explosions," he said.
"The fact that the terrorist attack coincides with this night when the beach is the most congested shows the hostility of the terrorists to the Somali people."
The terror group Al-Shabab has carried out numerous deadly attacks in Somalia in recent years.
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