Watch Somalia bomb attack: Death toll rises to over 300

WION Web Team

Mogadishu, Banaadir, SomaliaUpdated: Oct 16, 2017, 10:22 AM IST

The death toll has steadily risen since Saturday, when the blasts - for which no organisation had claimed responsibility by Monday morning - struck at two busy junctions in the heart of the city. Photograph:(WION)

Story highlights

Saturday's blast is the worst in Somalia's history, came six years after Shabaab militants were pushed out of Mogadishu. ||A doctor said 160 bodies could not be recognized.

The death toll in the twin bomb attack in Somalia's capital Mogadishu has risen to more than 300, an official told Reuters on Monday.

No organization has claimed responsibility for the blasts which occurred on Saturday.

"We have confirmed 300 people died in the blast. The death toll will still be higher because some people are still missing," Abdikadir Abdirahman, the director of the city's ambulance service, told Reuters.

Aden Nur, a doctor at the city's Madina hospital told Reuters that they had recorded 258 deaths while Ahmed Ali, a nurse at the nearby Osman Fiqi hospital, told Reuters five bodies had been sent there.

Nur said 160 bodies could not be recognized.

"There is still a national rescue operation underway," Somalia's information ministry said in a statement, adding that there would be "national mourning and prayers for the victims" in the coming days.

Saturday's blast is the worst in Somalia's history, came six years after Shabaab militants were pushed out of Mogadishu by African Union and Somali troops.