A suicide bombing in Yemen that apparently sought to target police recruits at a security compound has killed 25 people.

The attack, which Islamic State has claimed responsibility for, happened on Sunday in the coastal city of Mukalla.

Local medical and security sources told Reuters 25 people were killed and hospitals in the city were treating at least 25 more people who were wounded.

The bomber reportedly detonated an explosive belt as recruits lined up at a police headquarters in the city.

The victims reportedly included policemen returning to work for the first time since Mukalla was recaptured by government and Saudi-backed forces. Young men applying for jobs with the city’s police are also thought to be among the dead.

Al-Qaida carved out a swath of territory along the southern stretch of Yemen in the course of the civil war currently engulfing the country, but government troops backed by the United Arab Emirates have recently managed to halt their rise.

In the past year, Isis became enmeshed in the conflict after launching a series of suicide attacks against all parties in the war.

After Yemen’s government was overthrown by the country’s Shia Houthi movement, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf states launched military interventions to stop the growth of the movement, which they fear is backed by Iran.

The attack on the recruits, who were queueing to register at the police headquarters in the Fowa camp in the south of the city, is the second fatal suicide bombing in four days in Mukalla.

Security sources said Mubarak al-Awathaban, the city’s security director, who was in an office near to the recruits at the time of the explosion, survived the blast.

Last week the US announced it would be deploying a small number of troops to the country.