A car packed with explosives blew up outside a hotel in Mogadishu on Saturday as a minibus also exploded at a nearby junction, causing casualties, police said.

"A car loaded with explosives went off at the entrance of Nasa Hablod Hotel and there is gunfire," police official Ibrahim Mohamed told AFP, saying it looked like a coordinated attack.

"There was another minibus loaded with explosives which went off a nearby intersection," he said, confirming there were casualties but without giving an initial number.