Struggle to stem toll after bombing

SOMALIA’S president has joined the queues of blood donors desperately trying to stem the rising death toll after the nation’s worst terrorist attack.

The number killed by a huge truck bomb which reduced much of Mogadishu’s CBD to rubble on Saturday climbed to 276. Another 300 victims suffered horrific injuries, leaving local hospitals struggling to cope.

President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed declared three days of mourning and joined thousands of respondents to a desperate plea to donate blood for the injured, many of whom were burnt beyond recognition.

“I am appealing to all Somali people to come forward and donate,” he said.

Dr Mohamed Yusuf, the director of Medina hospital, said the facility was overwhelmed.

“We received people whose limbs were cut away by the bomb. This is really horrendous, unlike any other time in the past.”

Somalia’s government blamed the al-Qaeda-linked alShabab extremist group for the attack it called a “national disaster”.

However, al-Shabab, which often targets high-profile areas of the capital with bombings, had yet to comment.

“They don’t care about the lives of Somali people, mothers, fathers and children,” Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire said.

“They have most populated only civilians.”

Ambulance sirens echoed across the city as bewildered families wandered in the rubble of buildings, looking for missing relatives.

“In our 10-year experience as the first responder in Mogadishu, we haven’t seen anything like this,” the ambulance service tweeted.

Overnight, rescue workers with flashlights searched for survivors trapped under the remains of the largely destroyed Safari Hotel, close to Somalia’s foreign ministry.

The explosion blew off metal gates and blast walls erected outside the hotel.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull joined world leaders to condemn the attack.

“Australia’s heartfelt sympathies are with the people of Somalia after a brutal terrorist attack killed hundreds and injured many more,” Mr Turnbull said.

The blast came two days after the head of the US Africa Command met Somalia’s president in Mogadishu and followed the resignation of the country’s defence minister and army chief for undisclosed reasons. targeted the area killing