At least seven people have been killed in a massive car bomb blast in Somalia’s capital, the fourth deadly attack in the last few weeks.  

The explosion occurred at lunchtime on Wednesday at a restaurant near the ministries of internal security and youth.

“Seven people, most of them in the coffee shop, were killed in the blast. We carried wounded bodies into the hospital,” police officer Hussein Ahmed told Al Jazeera, adding at least eight others were wounded.

No group claimed responsibility for the explosion, however, the al-Qaeda-linked group al-Shabab often carries out such attacks.

Police pulled the bloodied body of a man from the rubble and said there may be more. Soldiers pushed back a surging crowd and fired in the air to disperse people.

“Those blood-suckers give no care to human lives whether they are civilians or others,” said police Captain Mohamed Hussein, who blamed al-Shabab for the attack. He stood near the bloodied body of a man and shattered glass. The blast largely destroyed the restaurant.

Al-Shabab was forced out of the capital and other major urban areas in Somalia by national and African Union multinational forces, but it continues to carry out deadly bombings and attacks in Mogadishu and elsewhere. Targets have included hotels, military checkpoints, and the presidential palace.