A car bomb has exploded in a market in the center of the Somali capital Mogadishu, with reports of gunfire having been heard following the blast.

Local residents said the blast took place in a main market in the capital on Tuesday, leaving at least five government soldiers wounded.

A police official said that the bomb was concealed inside a Somali military pick-up truck in Mogadishu's sprawling Bakara market.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the explosion. But the government usually blames al-Shabab fighters for similar violence.

Somalia has been gripped by a civil war since 1991 which has killed and displaced a large number of people.