By Mohamed Adam

MOGADISHU, Somalia 

Three people were killed and several wounded Tuesday when a bomb was detonated at the Somali capital’s main market.

“There was blood, pieces of clothing and shoes scattered around the chaotic scene of the bomb attack,” eyewitness Abdirahman Noor told Anadolu Agency. He said government troops reached the area shortly after the blast and cleared the area for fear of a second blast.

The Somali National News Agency quoted Abdikamil Moalim Shukri, a spokesman at the Internal Security Ministry, as saying a woman, her daughter and a police officer were killed in the blast.

Bakara Market is the largest in Somalia and has previously been targeted by al-Shabaab terrorists.

Elsewhere in Mogadishu, a person was killed and three injured in a mortar attack in the Warta Nabada district, a residential area near the Presidential Palace, District Commissioner Yasin Nor Isse told reporters. The attack happened as officials gathered to finalize the details of the election due later this year.

No group has claimed responsibility for either attack but al-Shabaab has carried out several bomb attacks in Mogadishu in recent months.