MOGADISHU (REUTERS) - A bomb killed at least five spectators at a football match in southern Somalia, police and a lawmaker said on Friday (April 13), the first time an explosion has targeted a stadium.

The blast went off in the port town of Barawe, in the Lower Shabelle region, when residents were watching a football match on Thursday afternoon, police said.

"The bomb killed five people and injured a dozen others in the football field. All the casualties were from the onlookers," Mr Mahad Dhoore, a lawmaker for South West state told Reuters.

Police officer Mohamed Aden said the Al-Qaeda-linked Al-Shabaab group was suspected of being behind the attack and put the number of dead at four and wounded at 12.

"We believe Al-Shabaab was behind (the blast) and that the target was officials who were not seated there at the time of the match. The bomb looked like a remotely controlled one that was planted there," officer Aden told Reuters from Barawe.