Police and witnesses told AFP that the bomber detonated a device late yesterday along the busy Lido Beach – popular with business people and officials and the scene of previous attacks – before gunmen stormed the area.

“The merciless terrorists shot civilians randomly and I saw seven dead bodies along the beach,” police officer Mohamed Omar told AFP today.

“There were wounded people as well but most of the civilians were rescued by the security forces,” he said, without giving further details on the casualties.

“The security forces ended the siege and killed all the five gunmen Kharijites who have attacked innocent civilians who were spending time at the beach,” Omar said, using the term officials adopt to describe the Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab jihadist group.

A sixth member of the group “blew himself at the beach”, he said.

Witnesses said there were many people at the popular location when the explosion occurred, describing how gunmen then stormed the area.

“Everybody was panicked and it was hard to know what was happening because shooting started soon after the blast,” witness Abdilatif Ali told AFP.