A powerful blast rocked a busy market on Monday in the Somali capital Mogadishu, which is regularly targeted by Al-Shabaab terrorists, police said.

“There was a strong explosion at the Hamarweyne market,” said police officer Ibrahim Mohamed. “We have no details for now but the area where the blast happened is a densely populated market.”

Mohamed said the market was near Mogadishu's municipality buildings.

The Al-Qaeda affiliated group was largely driven out of Mogadishu in 2011 and has lost many of its strongholds. But it retains control of large rural swathes of the country and continues to wage a guerrilla war against the authorities.