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Five prisoners and three soldiers were killed Saturday in a failed attempt by some inmates to in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, a corrections officer said.

Twenty-one people were wounded in the Saturday morning incident, said Col. Abdikani Khalaf, spokesman for the Somali army's custodial corps.

Speaking after the incident was over, he told reporters that some inmates armed with small arms and hand grenades exchanged fire with guards.

State-run media reported that an elite police unit intervened to thwart the attempted jailbreak.

The gunfire and explosions had interrupted weeks of relative calm for residents of Mogadishu, which faces sporadic attacks from the Islamist militant group Al-Shabab.

The prisoners involved in the attempted jailbreak were believed to be members of Al-Shabab, although it has not claimed responsibility for the incident.

Somali authorities said they had launched an investigation into how inmates were able to acquire weapons.

This is not the first instance of an attempted jailbreak at Mogadishu's main prison. A similar event in 2020 resulted in the loss of nine lives as inmates clashed with security guards while trying to flee.