At least 12 people have been killed and dozens more wounded when a car bomb exploded outside a major hospital in Libya’s northern city of Benghazi according to official sources.
An official said that the bomb struck the car park of the city’s emergency Al-Jala hospital on Monday afternoon.
The AFP news agency said at least 30 people had been wounded besides the fatalities.
The blast was caused by a car bomb and “caused deaths and injuries”, a security official said, without immediately being able to give further details.
Libyan deputy interior minister, Abdullah Massoud, said the blast caused massive damage in the hospital area.
It damaged a dozen or more vehicles and shattered the windows of buildings nearby, sending aloft a thick cloud of smoke and flinging dust several blocks away.
Only one of the dead was carried into the hospital intact, a doctor told Reuters news agency, which made it difficult to immediately establish the number of people killed.
Another doctor said three deaths were confirmed including a child, along with 17 injuries.
“I saw people running and some of them were collecting parts of bodies,” a witness who declined to be identified said.
Hundreds of angry people gathered at the scene, blaming armed groups for the explosion and calling for them to be driven from Benghazi.
