A suicide bombing claimed by the Islamic State group (Isil) and a second attack killed 47 police Sunday in the Yemeni port of Mukalla where a year of al-Qaeda rule ended last month, medics said.

It was the second attack in days claimed by Isil in the city of 200,000 people that was recaptured by government forces from the rival jihadists of al-Qaeda with US backing.

The suicide bomber killed at least 41 police recruits on the southwestern outskirts of the city, which is the capital of Hadramawt province, medics said.

The bomber detonated an explosives belt as he joined a line of men at a police recruiting centre, a provincial official said.

More than sixty people were also wounded in the attack in Fuwah district, a medical source said.

Hadramawt's security chief, General Mubarak al-Oubthani, who was at the recruitment centre at the time of the attack but was not hurt, was the target of a second bombing when he headed into central Mukalla afterwards, a security official said.

The bomb exploded as Gen. Oubthani walked out of his office, killing six of his guards but leaving him with only minor injuries, the official said.

An Isil statement posted online claimed the suicide attack, a second rare intervention by the jihadist group in an area known to be a stronghold of its al-Qaeda rivals.