Written by By Hayat Alvi, CNN Beirut
A bomb exploded at a bus stop close to the entrance of an international school in Somalia’s capital on Monday, killing eight people and injuring 13 others, government officials and witnesses said.
The injured children were being treated in nearby hospitals, a spokesman for the Somali Red Crescent said.
Jibril Ibrahim, director of a Somali rehabilitation center for war wounded, said he was with eight or nine of the injured children at the Nairobi Referral Hospital when the explosion took place.
The victims included a driver and a gardener, Ibrahim said.
“The other (shrapnel) did not land in the ground, it came towards the bus and went all over the bus. It missed the passengers.”
CNN can’t independently verify the number of casualties.
Video from the scene showed bodies on the ground and injured children being treated in the hospital’s corridors.
A senior government official said the bomb had appeared to be planted near the bus stop.
The International School of Mogadishu did not identify the victims or provide details on the nature of the injuries. It said in a statement that the bus driver was seriously injured.
President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo condemned the “cowardly bomb attack.”
“May Allah give those behind this vicious attack the mercy and grace of Allah,” Farmaajo said in a statement, according to the Presidency’s website.
The attack comes after Somalia’s government asked parliament to approve a new prime minister.
Photojournalist Ahmad Muse joined CNN in 2011 and is based in Cairo.
CNN was not immediately able to contact the school.