By Mohammed Dhaysane

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AA): Four football players were killed and several others wounded when a bomb blast targeted a bus carrying a local soccer team in Somalia’s port city of Kismayo on Friday, an official said.

Omar Hussain, a local police officer in Kismayo, told Anadolu Agency that it seemed to be a roadside bomb blast, adding further investigation is underway.

The injured were taken to hospitals in Kismayo, he added.

Ten players from the Jubaland Chamber of Commerce and Industry club were heading off for a game at the Kismayo city stadium in southern Somalia when the blast hit.

“The players were riding in a bus when the explosion went off, presumably inside the vehicle. There are investigations going on but we presume the device was planted onto the bus,” said police officer Mohamed Sadiq.

He said four football players were killed and five others wounded.

Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed condemned the attack, for which he blamed al-Shabaab terrorists, and offered condolences to the families of the players.

“Somali president expressed his condolences over the deaths of the young players who were killed by al-Shabaab terrorists in Kismayo,” said a presidential statement released to the Somali state television.

Kismayo, administrative capital of southern state of Jubaland, is a major port city located 500 kilometers (310 miles) southwest of the capital Mogadishu.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but Somali-based terrorist group al-Shabaab had owned many recent attacks in the Horn of Africa country.

Additional report by The Muslim News

[Photo: Earlier this month, a bomb exploded near a police convoy in the Somali capital of Mogadishu on July 10, 2021. Photographer: Sadak Mohamed/AA]