A car containing explosives blew up while trying to attack a presidential palace in southern Yemen on Saturday, killing at least 26 people and injuring several others, according to witnesses and medics.

The attack, apparently by a suicide bomber, happened in Hadramout, far from the capital of Sanaa, where Yemen's new president took an oath of office on Saturday.

Yemen's south is a turbulent region where secessionists are seeking to revive a socialist southern state and where an active wing of al Qaeda has taken root.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

AFP/REUTERS