MOGADISHU, Somalia — An explosion and fire blew a gaping hole in a commercial airliner Tuesday, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Mogadishu’s international airport, officials and witnesses said.

The pilot said he believed the explosion was caused by a bomb. An aviation expert who looked at photographs of the hole in the fuselage said the damage was consistent with an explosive device.

Two people were slightly injured as 74 passengers and crew of the plane were evacuated after the plane made a safe landing, Somali aviation official Ali Mohamoud said. It was not certain if all the passengers were accounted for.

The plane, operated by Daallo Airlines and headed to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa, was forced to land minutes after taking off from the Mogadishu airport, said Mohamoud.

‘‘I think it was a bomb,’’ said the Serbian pilot, Vladimir Vodopivec, who was quoted by Belgrade daily Blic. ‘‘Luckily, the flight controls were not damaged so I could return and land at the airport. . . . We lost pressure in the cabin. Thank God it ended well,’’ he said.

Awale Kullane, Somalia’s deputy ambassador to the UN who was on board the flight, said on Facebook that he ‘‘heard a loud noise and couldn’t see anything but smoke for a few seconds.’’ When visibility returned he realized ‘‘quite a chunk’’ of the plane was missing, he wrote.

Associated Press