At least six UN employees were killed and several others injured in a bomb explosion on a bus in northern Somalia on Monday, according to police and UN officials.
A bomb, apparently planted under a seat and detonated by remote control, caused the explosion, said police official Yusuf Ali.
Police official Abdullahi Mohamed confirmed the death of six UN staff, including a foreign national.
Col. Ali Salad, a senior police officer in the semiautonomous Puntland region, stated that the victims in the town of Garowe, the capital of the Puntland region, included both foreigners and Somalis.
The UN representative to Somalia, Nicholas Kay, condemned the attack, expressing shock and dismay at the loss of life, saying he was "shocked and appalled by loss of life."
The Al-Qaida-linked Al-Shabab group has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group's Andalus radio.
A resident of Garowe, Jama Hashi, described hearing a loud blast as the bus passed near the offices of the UN's food agency. He reported seeing human limbs scattered around the scene of the attack.
Following the incident, security forces sealed off the area, and ambulances transported the wounded from the scene of the blast.
Bomb attacks are relatively uncommon in northern Somalia, in contrast to the south, where Al-Shabab militants are engaged in a deadly conflict with the Somali government and African Union forces.
This attack follows a recent incident last week in which at least ten people were killed in an assault on the offices of Somalia's education ministry.
