A suicide car suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden vehicle today at the gate of a popular restaurant in the capital, Somali police said.

A hostage situation was under way at the Pizza House restaurant, said Capt. Mohamed Hussein. Many of the restaurant’s workers are foreigners, mostly from Ethiopia.

An ambulance driver says his service has carried 17 bodies in the ongoing attack in a restaurant in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu..

The Somalia-based extremist group al-Shabab often targets high-profile areas of Mogadishu, including hotels, military checkpoints and areas near the presidential palace. It has vowed to step up attacks after the recently elected government launched a new military offensive against it.

Al-Shabab last year became the deadliest Islamic extremist group in Africa, with more than 4,200 people killed in 2016, according to the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

Source: AP