MOGADISHU: Rebels detonated a car bomb at the entrance of a hotel in the Somali capital on Friday and then stormed inside where politicians had gathered, killing at least 11 people including a lawmaker and lightly wounding two ministers, including the Somali deputy prime minister.

“The building was badly hit, the explosion was very big, and I saw the bodies of 11 people carried away,” said police officer Abulrahman Ali. “There were very many wounded people too, many of them seriously.”

One person rammed his explosives-laden vehicle into the gate of the hotel, and another suicide bomber then entered the hotel and blew himself up, Capt. Mohammed Hussein told The Associated Press.

Al-Shabab, an insurgent group, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the group’s radio station, Andulus.

Bloodied bodies were lying outside the hotel in central Mogadishu, as soldiers cordoned off the area and fired bullets into the air to disperse approaching crowds.

Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte was rushed to a hospital, and was among several other high-ranking government officials at the hotel at the time of the attack, Hussein said.

“They don’t care about life, humans and Muslims,” said an elderly woman sobbing beside the dead body of a man outside the hotel.

This is the second attack on a hotel in Mogadishu in less than a month. On Jan. 22, three Somali nationals were killed when a suicide car bomber blew himself up at the gate of a hotel housing the advance party of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who visited the country days later. A Somali intelligence official said that the Turkish delegation of around 70 members was staying at the hotel at the time of the attack but were unharmed.

Despite major setbacks in 2014, Al-Shabab continues to wage a deadly insurgency against Somalia’s government and remains a threat in Somalia and the East African region. The group has carried out many attacks in Somalia and in neighboring countries, including Kenya, whose armies are part of the African Union troops bolstering Somalia’s weak UN-backed government.

Al-Shabab controlled much of Mogadishu during the years 2007 to 2011, but was pushed out of Somalia’s capital and other major cities by African Union forces.

The suicide attack targeted the Central Hotel around midday on Friday, typically a busy time for hotels as it is the Somali weekend. Ambulances wailed as they raced to the scene where a huge plume of smoke rose above the Indian Ocean coastal city.

“First the car bomb exploded at the gate of the hotel, then a suicide bomber blew himself up in the hotel compound,” police Major Nur Mohamed told Reuters.

“There were ministers and legislators inside the hotel.”

He said at least 10 people had been killed, including a lawmaker, security officers and civilians. “But the death toll may rise,” he added. Gunshots were heard for a short period inside the hotel after the attack.

Farah Abdullahi, a police captain, said Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Omar Arte and Ports and Marine Transport Minister Nur Farah Hirsi were lightly wounded. He earlier wrongly identified one minister as Transport Minister Ali Ahmed Jamac.

A presidential spokesman said President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud condemned the assault as a “terrorist attack.”

Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir Mareye told a radio station that “many died” including a lawmaker and the deputy mayor of Mogadishu. He said more details would follow.