A passenger jet made an emergency landing at Mogadishu's international airport after an explosion on board the commercial flight, a Somali aviation official said late Tuesday.
The plane, operated by Daallo Airlines and headed to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, was forced to land minutes after taking off from the Mogadishu airport, said Ali Mohamoud.
He said two passengers were slightly injured and 74 passengers and crew of the plane were evacuated after the plane made a safe landing.
Photos of the damage to Daallo airlines taken after the emergency landing. Two passengers were injured. #Somalia pic.twitter.com/2A5XTyOajm
— Harun Maruf (@HarunMaruf) February 2, 2016
VOA journlist Harun Maruf tweeted photos of the damaged plane after it landed safely.
Mohamed Hassan, a police officer in nearby Balad town, said residents had found the dead body of an old man who might have fallen from a plane. Balad is an agricultural town 30 kilometers (about 18 miles) north of Mogadishu.
Somalia faces an insurgency perpetrated by the Somali Islamic extremist group al-Shabab, which is responsible for many deadly attacks across the nation.