Mogadishu, Jan 29 (IANS): At least three people were killed and five others were injured when a car bomb exploded in the heart of Somalia's restive capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, the police said.

Mogadishu, Jan 29 (IANS) At least three people were killed and five others were injured when a car bomb exploded in the heart of Somalia's restive capital Mogadishu on Tuesday, the police said.

The vehicle had been stopped by officials at a security checkpoint near the historic centre of Mogadishu and the City Hall, police agent Mohamed Nur Ali, who was in the area, told Efe news, adding that he suspected the explosion did not occur at its intended destination.

Members of the emergency services were working at the site of the explosion, which the police had cordoned off.

Mogadishu is frequently hit by attacks claimed by the Somali militant group Al-Shabab, which seeks to establish an Islamic state in the country, located on the Horn of Africa.

Somalia suffered its worst attack in 2017 when a powerful truck bomb ripped through a crossroads outside a hotel, killing over 550 people.

Somalia has been in a state of war and chaos since 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled.

Earlier in the month, the Somali government expelled the head of the UN Assistance Mission in Somalia, Nicholas Haysom, who according to a UN statement, "was accused by the Somali government of interfering in its internal affairs, by questioning the detention of an opposition candidate for state-wide office, who had been a leader in the extremist Al-Shabaab group, before defecting".