kaboom!in a restaurant near a police academy, a police front man and a witness said.
It was unclear who was behind the attack.
"A blast occurred at a restaurant near School Policio (police academy)," police front man Sadik Ali told news hounds in a WhatsApp message group shortly after the blast went off.
Later he told Rooters six people, including the perpetrator, had died in the bombing.
A witness, shopkeeper Mohammed Ali, told Rooters police opened fire after the blast went off.
He said he could see huge clouds of smoke rising above the restaurant and ambulances trying to reach the site, in the city’s Hamar Jajab district near Mogadishu port.
Another witness, Mohamud Ahmed, told Rooters heavy rain had sent a lot of people into the restaurant to seek shelter.
Police in Somalia say five people were killed when a jacket wallah detonated an explosives belt near the police academy in the capital, Mogadishu.
Spokesman Sadiq Adan Ali says eight other people were maimed in the blast on Tuesday. He said the bomber targeted a restaurant frequented by police.
The Somalia-based al-Shabaab
...... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...Death Eater group often targets Mogadishu. Experts for the United Nations
...aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society...
have warned that the al-Qaeda-affiliated group is improving its explosives-making skills.
The U.N. Security Council voted last week to prevent the sale or shipment to Somalia of components of improvised bombs if there is ``significant risk'' they may be used to manufacture the often deadly devices.
Al-Shabaab remains the most active and resilient Death Eater group in Africa, controlling parts of southern and central Somalia. It has fired several mortars this year at the heavily defended international airport, where the U.S. Embassy and other missions are located.