A car bomb outside a tax collection centre in Somalia has killed at least 76 people, according to officials.
The blast struck a checkpoint during the morning rush hour at the start of the working week in the capital Mogadishu.
Images taken at the scene showed a mass of mangled vehicles below clouds of black smoke.
Survivors described the intensity of the explosion as being similar to when a truck bomb detonated in the city two years earlier, leaving more than 500 dead.
An ambulance spokesman had warned in the aftermath of Saturday’s blast that further fatalities were expected because of the severe nature of the injuries among an estimated 50 people hurt.
The city’s mayor, Omar Mohamud Mohamed, said university students – believed to be the occupants of a mini-bus – were among those killed.
A witness, Mohamed Abdi Hakim, told the AP news agency: “I saw many dead bodies lying on the ground
“Some of those dead were police officers, but most of them were students.”
No group was yet to say it was behind the attack but it bore all the hallmarks of Al Qaeda-linked al-Shabab.
The extremist group, which controls parts of the country, has a history of targeting the city’s infrastructure including checkpoints and hotels since it was pushed out of Mogadishu several years ago.
The latest bombing will raise questions over whether Somali forces are ready and able to replace an African Union force that has been responsible for boosting security.
The capital’s last mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman, a British national who returned to Somalia to help lead the war-torn country’s recovery, died following an al-Shabab attack in July.
