Eight killed, 40 others injured in explosion in southern Somalia

MOGADISHU, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Eight people were killed and 40 others were injured on Wednesday after a deadly blast hit a busy market in Goof Gadud Burey district in Somalia's southern Bay Region.

Hassan Mayow, Goof Gadud Burey district commissioner told journalists that a bomb placed along the road exploded as people gathered in a busy livestock market in the area, causing the casualties.

"The blast claimed the life of nomadic civilians who came to the market for business, we can confirm eight people died and 40 others sustained injuries," Mayow said.

He added that the injured ones were taken to the main hospitals in Baidoa for treatment. Eyewitnesses said that they were shocked by a rocky blast.

"I was at a place not far from where the bomb detonated, I first heard a huge blast terrifying everyone nearby and people were screaming for help," a local resident, Jeylani Abikar, told Xinhua by phone.

No organization has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion.

The latest blast comes amid Somali national forces intensified operations on al-Shabab militants in central and southern Somalia to root the militants out of those regions.