MOGADISHU — At least 27 people, most of them children, were killed when remnants of an old bomb exploded in Somalia’s Lower Shabelle region on Friday, according to the state-run Somali National News Agency.

At least 53 people have also been injured in the blast, SONA reported. The explosion took place in the Murale village in the Janaale area of the eastern Lower Shabelle region, it said.

Local official said the unexploded mortar detonated near to where mostly children — aged between 10 and 15 — were playing.

The explosion “caused by unexploded mortar shells” occurred near the town of Qoryoley, approximately 120km (75 miles) south of the capital, Mogadishu, said Abdi Ahmed Ali, deputy district commissioner of Qoryoley.

“They were playing with a mortar shell ... It exploded on them. Twenty of them died and others are injured,” Ali said. “We request the government and aid agencies to clear mines and shells from the area,” he said.

Residents said that Somalia’s warring factions had left the shell behind at some stage.

Another report said the children had found an intact explosive device on a football field and were playing with it when it exploded. Recent rainfall had uncovered the explosive device, according to reports.

In another development, six civilians have been killed and 10 injured after Al-Shabab militants attacked a beachside hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, police said.

Security forces rescued more than 80 guests from the Pearl Beach hotel after a six-hour siege on Friday night. Three members of the security forces died in the rescue operation and have been praised for their bravery.

All of the attackers were killed in a fierce gun battle with security forces, police said. Pearl Beach hotel was popular with government officials.

Such places are frequently targeted by Al-Shabab insurgents, who have been fighting Somalia's government for more than a decade and retain a stronghold on parts of the country.

People who were caught up in this latest attack described the shocking moment armed men stormed the complex.

"I was sitting near the beach when the first explosion happened at the front gate of the hotel and there was another one at the back," eyewitness Hussein Saddam told the Reuters news agency.

"I saw four dead bodies — two were women and the two others were men... It was a very shocking scene but Allah has saved me."

The Pearl Beach hotel attack comes weeks after Al-Shabab militants killed dozens of Ugandan soldiers, who were part of an African Union peacekeeping mission 110km (68 miles) south of the capital in the Lower Shabelle region. — Agencies