A siege on a hotel frequented by government officials in Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu has ended with the attack leaving at least 17 people dead.

Somali officials said on Saturday that they have taken control of the Maka al-Mukarama hotel where extremists had stormed and taken refuge for more than 12 hours.

Captain Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police officer, said the shootings had ceased and the whole building is in the control of security officers.

Hussein had earlier said that the government forces managed to take up the hotel’s ground floor, while the armed men were assumed to be on the fourth and fifth floors during the siege.

The African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM) cited reports on its Twitter account that the assailants had taken an unspecified number of hostages in the incident.

The gunmen entered the hotel on Friday after an explosive-laden car was detonated at the gate of the Maka al-Mukarama hotel, killing 10 people, including Somalia’s ambassador to Switzerland.

The al-Shabab militant group has issued a statement and took responsibility for the assault, with its spokesman Abdulaziz Abu Musab saying the group’s members were in control of the hotel.

Somalia has been the scene of deadly clashes between government forces and al-Shabab elements since 2006.

The militants have been pushed out of Mogadishu and other major cities by government troops and the African Union Mission to Somalia, which is largely made up of troops from Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Sierra Leone, and Kenya.

The al-Shabab members have, however, continued to carry out attacks in Mogadishu despite being ousted from their bases in the seaside city in 2011.