Three people were killed Friday in a car bomb targeting an airport official in Somalia’s capital, police said, as investigators probe an airplane blast experts fear was also a bomb.

Three people were killed Friday in a car bomb targeting an airport official in Somalia's capital, police said, as investigators probe an airplane blast experts fear was also a bomb.

"An airport security official was targeted but he survived the attack, three other people including a woman were killed in the blast," police official Ali Dahir told AFP.

The man believed to have been targeted had just left the vehicle to go into a chemist shop.

"A man got out of the car and entered a pharmacy, but before he returned a huge blast ripped through the car. I saw several people burned," said Aded Mohamed, who was near the explosion.

No group has claimed responsibility for the car bomb, but Somalia's Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab terrorists have carried out a raft of similar attacks in the past.

The car bomb follows a blast on a commercial airliner that ripped a hole in its fuselage, 15 minutes after take-off from Mogadishu on Tuesday.

It is unclear whether the two blasts were in any way related, but security has been boosted around the already heavily fortified airport.