UPDATE 2-Car bomb attack strikes local government office in Mogadishu - police

A suicide car bomb struck a local government office in Mogadishu on Sunday, police said, destroying the building and a school opposite.

Ambulances took casualties to hospitals as people searched through the rubble for survivors, a Reuters witness said. The blast also blew off the roof of a mosque and damaged houses nearby.

"A suicide car bomb (rammed) into the district office of Hawlwadag in Mogadishu. It is too early to know casualties," Abdullahi Hussein, a police officer, told Reuters.

A Reuters journalist on the scene saw a human hand and blood stains in the rubble.

Somalia has been convulsed by lawlessness and violence since 1991. Islamist group Al Shabaab is fighting to dislodge a Western-backed government protected by African Union-mandated peacekeepers.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)