At least 32 killed in terror beach blast after Al-Qaeda linked suicide bomber and gunmen launch attack at resort

AT LEAST 32 people have been killed in a horrific suicide bombing attack in Africa.

Terrorists from Al-Qaeda linked group Al-Shabaab opened fire at a popular tourist resort in Somalia also wounding 63 people.

Reuters

Reuters

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Horrific footage and pictures from the beach showed bodies strewn across the sand as emergency services rushed to help.

The explosion was set off as people swam at the popular Lido beach in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu late on Friday.

Local police spokesperson Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters that security forces rushed to the scene to take on the “five gunmen”.

He later said in a press conference: “More than 32 civilians died in this attack, and about 63 others were wounded, some of them critically.”

Cops said one of the attackers had blown himself up, while three others had been killed by security forces.

The fifth was captured by police alive.

One horrified witness, Abdilatif Ali, told AFP: “Everybody was panicked and it was hard to know what was happening because shooting started soon after the blast.

“I saw many people strewn (on the ground) and some of them were dead and others wounded.”

Another man who saw the attack unfold from a nearby hotel, said: “I saw wounded people at the beach side, people were screaming in panic, and it was hard to notice who was dead and who was still alive.”

And Mohamud Moalim told AP that he saw one of the attackers wearing an explosive vest just before he “‘blew himself up next to the beach-view hotel”.

Police officer Mohamed Omar said the attackers “shot civilians randomly.”

Islamic extremist terror group Al-Shabaab has previously claimed responsibility for similar attacks in the area.

It did the same today after Friday’s hideous attack in an online post, The New York Times reports.

Al-Shabaab used to control huge areas in Somalia, including in the capital, before local and international efforts successfully pushed them back.

Former prime minister Hassan Ali Khaire 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.”

Lido Beach, popular with locals and tourists, has been targeted by the same terror group before.

In 2023 another beachside hotel in the area came under siege from the terror cult in a six-hour attack.

Six people were killed and 10 wounded.

Just last month, a car bomb was set off in the capital at a cafe.

And in March Al-Shabaab terrorists killed three and injured 27 in another hotel rampage.

Alamy