At least 16 people were killed, and at least 43 others were injured as of Monday after gunmen stormed a beachside hotel in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, according the local AAMIN ambulance service in Somalia.

After a nearly five-hour siege by Islamic extremists, security forces killed all four attackers and rescued people trapped inside the Elite Hotel in Lido beach.

At about midnight, state news agency SONNA said the operation was over and that 205 people had been rescued, "including ministers, lawmakers and civilians," citing Farhan Qarole, a security forces commander at the hotel.

The attack started in the afternoon with a powerful car bomb blast which blew off the security gates to the hotel. Then gunmen ran inside and took hostages, mostly young men and women who were dining there, Ismael Mukhtaar Omar, spokesman of Somalia's information ministry, said.

Witnesses said the attack began with a heavy explosion and people ran from the area as gunfire could be heard from the hotel, which is frequented by government officials. 

"The blast was very heavy and I could see smoke in the area. There is chaos and people are fleeing from nearby buildings," said witness Ali Sayid Adan.  

Among the dead was an official from the information ministry, Abdirasak Abdi, his colleague Hussein Ali said. 

Al-Shabaab, the Islamist group which operates in Somalia who are allied to al-Qaida, has claimed responsibility for the attack via its radio arm, Andalus.

The group has targeted hotels multiple times over the years, including in February 2019 car bomb and gun attack, when its members killed at least 20 people in a hotel in Mogadishu. The attack lasted for nearly 24 hours.  

Al-Shabaab has waged a war against Somalia's central government for several years in a bid to oust it and establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

The hotel attack shattered a period of calm that had lasted for a few months. Earlier this year Somalia had a spate of bomb attacks.

(With input from agencies)