MOGADISHU - At least seven people, including three children, died and three were wounded Friday when a suspected landmine explosion shattered a makeshift house outside Mogadishu, residents said.
Locals in Afgoye, 20 kilometres (13 miles) west of Mogadishu, said the explosion destroyed the building, killing six people straight away and amputating the legs of a young girl, who later died.
"We have seven people killed and three wounded by the blast," said Abdi Ibrahim, a neighbour who attended a funeral for the deceased on Friday.
"Six were killed when the device -- believed to be a landmine -- exploded in the house," Hamud Mohamed, a neighbour, said.
"Six died on the spot," said Ibrahim Daud, adding that one girl lost her legs in the explosion. She died soon afterwards.
Police in Afgoye were probing the blast in the makeshift house of one of thousands of families who have recently fled spiralling violence in Mogadishu.
Insurgents have increased attacks in the Somali capital since joint Ethiopian-Somali forces ousted the Islamic courts in January.
The African Union last week deployed 1,200 Ugandan troops there, part of a proposed 8,000-strong force aiming to enable Ethiopian troops to leave and Somali forces to take over security.
Landmines and other weapons have been sold in Somalia openly since January 1991, when Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled and the country plunged into clan warfare.
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