For the first hour after the blast, the smoke was so thick it was almost impossible to breathe.

But even as volunteer medics struggled to make out survivors to rescue, Abdulkadir Abdirahman Adan knew it would be the worst day of his 12 years running ambulances in one of the world’s most violent cities.

“I got there in about 15 minutes. The first thing I saw was a truck burning. Cars, trucks, motorcycles - all of them burning,” the 44 year old dentist said.

“Wherever you looked, there was a part of a body. I remember someone screaming. Everywhere, someone screaming: ‘can you help me, can you help me, can you help me?’.”

“I saw a man in a burning car, and we couldn’t do anything for him - there were no fire fighters,” he added. "We did what we could. We transported almost 250 people."