The Al-Qaeda-linked rebels have been waging an insurgency against the internationally backed federal government for more than 17 years and have previously targeted the Lido beach area, popular with business people and officials.
Unverified videos shared online in the immediate aftermath of the attack showed people scattering along a street, with a number of clips purporting to show bloodied bodies lying on the beachfront.
“More than 32 civilians died in this attack and about 63 others were wounded, some of them critically,” police spokesman Abdifatah Adan Hassan told reporters during a press conference.
“Targeting and blasting to kill 32 members from the civilian population means these Kharijites are not going to target only government centres, soldiers and officials,” he said, using the term Somali officials adopt to describe Al-Shabaab.
The assault, for which Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility in a post on a pro-Shabaab website, began late yesterday when a suicide bomber detonated a device and gunmen stormed the area, police and witnesses told AFP.
Officer Mohamed Omar told AFP they had “shot civilians randomly”.
He said security forces had ended the attack and killed five gunmen, while a sixth member of the group “blew himself (up) at the beach”.
Witnesses said there were many people at the popular location when the explosion occurred, describing how gunmen then stormed the area.
Lido Beach attacks
“Everybody was panicked and it was hard to know what was happening because shooting started soon after the blast,” witness Abdilatif Ali told AFP.
He said that people attempted take cover on the ground or flee.
“I saw many people strewn (on the ground) and some of them were dead and others wounded,” he said.
Ahmed Yare witnessed the attack unfold from a nearby hotel.
“I saw wounded people at the beachside. People were screaming in panic and it was hard to notice who was dead and who was still alive,” he told AFP.
Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for numerous bombings and attacks in Mogadishu and other parts of the country, whose government is pressing on with an offensive against the Islamist militants.
The Lido area has been the target of previous attacks, including a six-hour Al-Shabaab siege of a beachside hotel in 2023, which left six civilians dead and 10 wounded.
Five people were killed in a powerful car bomb blast at a cafe in the capital last month.
In March, the rebels killed three people and wounded 27 in an hours-long siege of another Mogadishu hotel, breaking a relative lull in the fighting.