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No group has claimed responsibility for the bombing, but it bore the hallmarks of previous Al-Shabaab attacks in Mogadishu.

A third car bomb blast occurred at the city’s main hospital while busy receiving the victims of the first explosions and it caused fatalities and injuries, according to the medics.

The situation is now tense with ambulances reaching the scene to transport the wounded and the dead to the city's main hospital. The details of the casualties are yet to be established.

The city has witnessed in the past months a series of assassinations and explosions due to lax security and a lack of routine patrols by the police.

Al-Shabaab poses a potent threat to Somali security as it carries out attacks in government-controlled areas in the south and central Somalia.

Intense fighting was reported in the area between Somali government forces and Al-Shabaab attackers following the IED explosion. The death toll is feared to rise due to the ongoing army operation.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bombing, but police pointed the finger of the blame at Al-Shabaab, which is fighting against the UN-backed Somali government.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but, local police pointed the finger of the blame at the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab group, which is waging a decade-long insurgency in Somalia.

Instead, polls follow a complex indirect model, whereby state legislatures and clan delegates pick lawmakers for the national parliament, who in turn choose the president.

The local police cordoned off the scene of the blast and moved the wreckage of the car and the dead bodies of the two soldiers to Jowhar city, some 90 Km north of Mogadishu.

A similar attack was reported at the same time in Darussalam village of Yaqshid district in the north of Mogadishu after Al-Shabaab unleashed a car bomb and direct assault on a military base.

It's the second attack on an election site since Wednesday when Al-Shabaab fired at least six mortars into Barawe, a coastal city in the Lower Shabelle region, killing four civilians.