Mogadishu: The death toll from an Al Shabaab suicide car bombing at a Mogadishu hotel rose to 29 with 80 wounded, police said on Friday, as a gun battle raged at the site of the blast between fighters of the militant group and Somali troops.

‘So far we know 29 people mostly civilians died and 80 others injured. The militants are still fighting from inside a civilian house adjacent to the hotel... The death toll may rise,’ police Major Musa Ali told Reuters.

The blast hit the Maka Al-Mukarama hotel on Thursday evening.

Capt. Mohamed Hussein said at least 40 others were injured in the attack Thursday near a hotel and a judge’s residence on a busy street in Mogadishu, the AP reported.

He said early Friday that security forces were still fighting to neutralize some militants holed up inside a building close to Maka Almukarramah hotel, which the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab said had been the target.

He said the death toll could rise as many of the wounded are being treated in hospitals.

Al-Shabab has targeted the Maka Almukarramah hotel, which is frequently patronized by government officials, multiple times in the past.