A deadly car bomb attack rocked the Libyan city of Benghazi on Monday, killing and wounding dozens.

A deadly car bomb attack rocked the Libyan city of Benghazi on Monday, killing and wounding dozens.

Officials gave contradicting death tolls after the devastating bomb destroyed a restaurant and damaged cars and buildings near Al-Jala hospital in the centre of Benghazi.

Youths took to the streets to protest against the insecurity still ravaging the city which was the cradle of the uprising against late dictator Moammar Gaddafi.

Deputy Interior Minister Abdullah Massoud said 15 people were killed and 30 wounded in the attack. He stressed it was a "preliminary toll".
A health ministry spokesman in Tripoli, Salah Abdeldayem, later told AFP that four people died and six were wounded.

A police official in Benghazi, Tarak al-Kharaz, told Libya's Al-Ahrar television station that 13 had died and 41 were wounded.

Witnesses said children were among the casualties of what commentators said was the first attack of its kind to hit Libyan civilians in broad daylight since the 2011 uprising.

Dozens of people, many of them youths, rushed to the scene, some even volunteering to gather body parts and place them in plastic bags, AFP journalists reported.