MOGADISHU, Somalia — Gunmen from an Islamist militant group stormed a government building in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, after a suicide car bombing on Saturday, killing at least five people, including the country’s deputy labor minister, the police said.

Somali security forces fought an hourslong gun battle with at least five assailants to retake control of the building, which houses the ministries of labor and works, a police officer, Capt. Mohamed Hussein, said.

The Reuters news agency, citing police sources, put the death toll at the end of the battle at 15.

Saqar Ibrahim Abdalla, Somalia’s deputy minister of labor and social affairs, was killed in his ground-floor office shortly after the gunmen stormed the building, Captain Hussein said.

Saturday is a working day in Somalia, and dozens of people were believed to be in the building at the time of the attack.