MOGADISHU, Somalia –– A hand grenade exploded at the home of interim Prime Minister Hassan Abshir Farah, injuring four people, two seriously, the police chief in the Somali capital said Saturday.

Col. Abdi Hassan Awaleh Qeybdid said Farah was not injured in the blast Friday evening.

"The special branch from the Central Investigation Department is continuing their investigation of the attack against the residence of the prime minister," Qeybdid said. "It is too early to point a finger at any particular group, but we can't yet declare whether it was really an attack or an accident."

Farah had earlier attempted to play the incident down.

"We cannot even rule out the possibility that the hand grenade might have accidentally fallen from one of our armed men," he told The Associated Press. "There is nothing to worry about."

But according to the eyewitnesses, who did not want their names used, the grenade was tossed from outside the compound and hit a man on the shoulder before it exploded under a tree where Farah's bodyguards were sitting.

Two seriously wounded bodyguards and two other injured men were hospitalized.

One of the eyewitnesses said residents had seen a man wearing army boots climb the wall surrounding the prime minister's compound. He said boot prints were found Saturday morning near the wall where the man was seen climbing.

The explosion took place as Qeybdid was leaving the prime minister's residence. He was not injured, but his parked vehicle was badly damaged.

A delegation of Italian aid workers had left the compound about 15 minutes before the grenade went off.

The incident took place as Farah is deeply involved in negotiations over power sharing with leaders of armed factions who have thrown their support behind the interim government of President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan that was set up following a peace conference in neighboring Djibouti in August 2000.

The leaders of several well-armed factions in the capital do not recognize the government.

On Jan. 24, the police ordered free-lance gunmen from carrying assault rifles on the streets of Mogadishu and suggested to faction leaders that they avoid driving around the city in convoys of pickup trucks bristling with armed gunmen.

 © 2002 The Associated Press