At least nine people dead after attack on Mogadishu hotel in Somalia

An attack on a hotel in the centre of the Somali capital on Sunday has left more than nine people dead.

A suicide car bomb struck the entrance of Hotel Afrik, in the heart of Mogadishu, and was followed by massive gunfire, according to a DPA reporter who was at the scene at the time of the explosion.

Police officer Ali Hassan said suspected Islamist gunmen had stormed the hotel after the explosion.

Hassan told DPA that more than nine people, most of them civilians, were killed dead in the attack.

Several ambulances ferried the wounded to hospital.

Small explosions, likely hand grenades, and gunfire could still be heard in the area.