MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/. At least 27 people were killed and 53 injured when an unexploded ordnance detonated in the south of Somalia, the Somali National News Agency (SONNA) reported late on Friday.

The incident occurred near the city of Qoryoley.

Earlier, China’s Xinhua news agency said citing local authorities that at least 25 of those killed were children aged between 10 and 15. An investigation is under way.

A resident of the city told the AFP news agency that the explosion occurred near a children’s playground. The majority of the victims were small children, who died instantly when one of them triggered an explosive device, he added.

According to AFP, numerous explosive devices have been scattered around the region as a result of operations of the Al-Shabaab terrorist group.

In 2004, the jihadist fundamentalist group Al-Shabaab was established on the territory of Somalia. Since 2008, its militants have been committing terrorist attacks involving suicide bombers or car explosives. It once controlled vast swaths of territory in the country, but in 2011 the government forces pushed it out of the capital Mogadishu, and the group had to switch from open confrontation to guerilla warfare against the government and its allies. In 2012, one of Al-Shabaab’s leaders declared that the group was joining the Al-Qaeda terrorist network (outlawed in Russia). The total number of Al-Shabaab’s militants is estimated at around 10,000.