They took an unknown number of hostages captive as they lobbed grenades and set up sniper positions on the roof.
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A hotel in Mogadishu came under attack on Saturday, with a suicide bomber detonating a auto bomb outside the front gate and gunmen storming the building.
Photos published by wire services show injured people covered in blood fleeing from the scene or being carried by other civilians, as security forces are seen taking aim at the hotel.
“They were shooting at everyone they could see”.
At 7:00 pm, as night fell in Somalia, sporadic gunfire could still be heard, witnesses said.
Mohamed Hussein said some attackers had moved to the second floor and were using machine guns to resist security forces.
Abdi Kamil Shukri, a spokesman for the Somali security ministry, told reporters late Saturday that the situation was “back to normal”.
He also told AP news agency that he saw four bodies, thought to be civilians, lying outside the hotel.
He also said that more than 30 people had been wounded and are being attended to by medical personnel at the attack site and in local hospitals.
Police said at least seven people had died and 10 others were wounded.
Islamic extremist group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a series of hotel attacks in Mogadishu.
This attack came as Muslims hold their fast in month of Ramadan in Somalia and worldwide. Numbers of casualties cited by the government are often lower than those reported by al Shabaab.
The affiliate of al-Qaeda in Somalia in recent months has attacked numerous hotels and restaurants in the capital, according to the Shabelle News website.
In April, at least five people were killed by a vehicle bomb outside a restaurant in Mogadishu.
Al Shabaab gunmen besieged the Ambassador hotel for more than 12 hours.
A year ago it was turfed out from strongholds elsewhere in the south by AMISOM and the Somali National Army.
The group frequently conducts suicide attacks and bombings in Somalia’s cities.
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Across the border in Kenya, five policemen were killed on Monday when suspected Shabaab fighters attacked their convoy. Both contribute troops to an African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia.
