Hiiraan Online
Sunday, January 3, 2016
MOGADISHU (HOL) – Mohamed Hassan, a 60 years old former university professor was chitchatting with his friend over coffee inside a Mogadishu restaurant when he saw a suspicious man struggling to fine-tune a wire under his blouse which poked out of his shirt’s buttons.
The nervous-looking man took a seat two meters away from him. He started shoving his hand under his shirt only to uncover his vest even clearer to nearby people. The more he checked his vest the more he had drawn people’s attention – and the more people saw the more the restaurant gets emptied of people.
Mr. Hassan stood no chance to have a time lag, but immediately paced towards the gate only to find the bomber detonated his explosive vest behind him. He barely escaped being killed by thunderous blast.
“He was a tall, dark-skinned young man – he has taken most of his time looking and checking his explosive vest.” He said in an interview with HOL.
“The bang tore through the air that all people had to dive to take cover. It was a terrible experience.”
Mr. Hassan said he believed the bomber activated his vest prematurely as his two hands were fiddling the wires.
“If he had his vest working properly a lot of innocent people could have been killed today there would likely have been more casualties.”
CHAOTIC SCENES
Across the Village restaurant, a severed head of the bomber was lying near the kitchen, while his torso laid on the other side.
“Having experienced that shocking bombing, I can’t ground my senses and even breathe properly.” He said.
ENCOUNTER
Hassan has just come back from the bathroom the first moment he saw the bomber walked into the restaurant and ordered mango juice from a waiter.
“He kept his back straight and chin up as he took the seat – he kept checking his mobile phone’s screen and hand an earphone in his ear.” He said.