A vehicle burns after it exploded in Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. Photograph: Farah Abdi Warsameh/APSomali police appeared to make a deadly error when they returned a suspected suicide car bomber they had arrested to his vehicle, where he then detonated a blast that killed four people, officials and witnesses have said.
Ali Muse, the head of the city's ambulance service, said the blast killed three civilians, while shopkeeper Abdiqadir Abdulahi said he saw one dead policeman as well.
Al-Shabab militants have stepped up a campaign of roadside bombs and suicide car bomb attacks in Mogadishu in recent weeks. The militants were almost entirely pushed out of the Somali capital earlier this year in an offensive by African Union forces.
The latest blast, which happened on Tuesday near the former Egyptian embassy, sent a plume of smoke over the city and the remains of the car burned long after the explosion.
A policeman, Abdi Hassan, said the would-be bomber was intercepted hours before the blast and arrested. But Hassan said police returned the attacker to his bomb-laden vehicle under orders to disarm the explosives. Instead, he was able to trigger the bomb.
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