A file photo shows a police cadet graduation ceremony in Tripoli, Jun. 8.
Mahmud Turkia / AFP / Getty Images
At least 40 people were killed after a bomb targeted a Libyan police training facility in the town of Zliten on Thursday morning, according to the town's mayor.
Mayor Miftah Lahmadi said the blast happened when a truck exploded as hundreds of police recruits gathered at the center, Reuters reported.
The United Nations' Special Representative Libya Martin Kobler called it a suicide attack as he condemned the bombing.
The Al Jahfal training camp had been a military base during the rule of ousted President Muammar al-Qaddafi, according to the BBC.
The death count could be significantly higher than Mayor Lahmadi's initial report. Zliten's hospital told the LANA News Agency — run by the country's internationally recognized but internally disputed government — that 50 people had died and 127 had been wounded.
A short while later, Reuters cited a hospital source as saying 65 people had died.
The town's teaching hospital has urgently called for blood donations, LANA reported.
Libya has been plagued by instability since Qaddafi's overthrow in 2011, and there have been growing fears that ISIS is gaining a firm foothold in the country.
In December, the two rival governments claiming to rule the country signed a UN-brokered deal to form a unity administration, which has yet to be implemented, the BBC reported.
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