MOGADISHU, May 7: Two children died and seven people were wounded on Monday when a bomb exploded under a police car near the presidential palace in Somalia's volatile capital Mogadishu, police and witnesses said.

The blast came just hours after Somali troops, backed by Ethiopian forces, cracked down on arms dealers near the scene of the blast.

The police car exploded near the Villa Somalia presidential palace in southern Mogadishu, prompting security forces to seal off surrounding areas.

“Two children who were playing nearby were killed by the bomb. One died instantly and the other died in hospital,” said local resident Farah Darod.

“The bomb hit a police car somewhere not too far from the presidential palace and four policemen were wounded,” police officer Ibrahim Mohamed said.

A southern Mogadishu resident, Mohamed Ali, said three civilians were also hit by shrapnel.

Officials confirmed the vehicle belonged to regional police chief Ali Said, and that he was not in it when it was attacked.

The blast occurred after Ethiopian forces raided the Bakara market, the city's largest, and seized two truckloads of weapons, causing local arms dealers to flee their stalls.

“Ethiopian and Somali military ... surrounded and entered the market, broke several stores, collected guns and loaded them into trucks,” arms dealer Dahir Faqash said. “The weapons included heavy and small machine guns,” Faqash added.

Another arms dealer, Suleyman Adbi Barra, said the soldiers ransacked the market -- which also sells clothes, spare parts and foreign currencies -- for around 45 minutes before loading the weapons into military vehicles.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme on Monday delivered aid to Mogadishu residents in several districts for the first time since the end of recent clashes between Ethiopian-Somali troops and Islamist and clan fighters in which hundreds died.

A lorry delivered 32 tonnes of maize to displaced families temporarily rehoused in the south of the capital, but local officials said a lot more food was needed.—AFP