Police tell Somalia state media there are "scores of civilian casualties" after two explosions struck a busy junction Saturday in Somalia's capital near key government offices.

The Somalia National News Agency cited national police spokesman Sadiq Dodishe, who said two car bombs had gone off.

An Associated Press (AP) journalist at the scene saw "many" bodies and said they appeared to be civilians traveling on public transport. He said the second blast occurred in front of a busy restaurant.

The director of the Aamin ambulance service told the AP they had collected many wounded or killed. One of the ambulances responding was destroyed in the second blast, Abdulkadir Adan added in a tweet.

"Two car bombs targeted the education ministry building along K5 street," an inhabitant Ahmed Nur told Reuters. The first explosion hit the walls of the ministry while the second blast occurred as ambulances arrived and people gathered to help the victims, police captain Nur Farah told Reuters.

"The second blast burnt our ambulance as we came to transport the casualty from the first blast," Abdikadir Abdirahman, founder of the Aamin Ambulance Service told Reuters, adding a driver and a first aid worker had been injured in the blast.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility in a city often targeted by the al-Shabab extremist group.

The "simultaneous explosions occurred along the Zobe road and there are various casualties. We will provide details later," Dodishe, said.

A vehicle loaded with explosive was driven into the ministry compound and followed by gunfire, police officer Ibrahim Mohamed said.

"In a few minutes another blast occurred in the same area," he said.

Abdirahman Ise, a witness, said the road had been busy when the first blast went off.

"I saw huge smoke in the ministry area and there is massive destruction," another witness, Amino Salad, said.

The extremist group has been seeking to overthrow the fragile foreign-backed government in Mogadishu for about 15 years.

Its fighters were driven out of the capital in 2011 by an African Union force but the group still controls swathes of countryside and has the capacity to wage deadly strikes on civilian and military targets.

They use threats of violence to collect taxes in territory under their jurisdiction.

The group last week claimed responsibility for an attack on a hotel in the port city of Kismayo that killed nine people and wounded 47 others.

In August, the group launched a 30-hour gun and bomb attack on the popular Hayat hotel in Mogadishu, killing 21 people and wounding 117.

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who was elected in May, vowed after the August siege to wage "all-out war" on the Islamists.

In September he urged citizens to stay away from areas controlled by jihadists, saying the armed forces and tribal militia were ratcheting up offensives against them.

A joint U.S.-Somali drone strike killed one of the militants' most senior commanders on Oct. 1.

Just hours after his death was announced, a triple bombing in the southern city of Beledweyne killed at least 30 people.