Three female street cleaners were killed and eight others injured on Sunday after an explosive hidden in the trash they collected went off in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police and witnesses said.
Three women cleaning the city were murdered in this heinous act. Eight others were also injured. It was an improvised explosive device hidden in the trash they were taking, Somali police officer Nur Ali told Xinhua.
Although no group has so far claimed responsibility for the attack, the State Radio Mogadishu said, quoting government officials that the militant Al Shabaab group was likely behind the explosion.
Witnesses said the huge explosion could be heard across the Hodon district of Mogadishu where the female sanitation workers were working.
"We heard screams and noise shortly after the explosion and when we got to the street where the blast occurred there were blood and human body parts all over the place," Omar Jey said.
The injured women including some critical were rushed to the main Mogadishu hospital immediately after the blast.
Sanitation workers, who are mainly women employed by the government to clean the capital, have previously been targeted in similar attacks which have not been claimed by any group.
Radical Islamist group of Al Shabaab often target Somali government civil servants and officials as well as security forces.
The Al Qaeda-linked extremist group recently increased its attacks in Mogadishu where a number of people including lawmakers were killed.