Somali gunmen tried to kidnap a Swedish opposition politician yesterday in an ambush in which she and another woman were wounded and two men were killed, police said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. However, al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants have kept up guerrilla-style attacks and kidnappings in the city despite being largely pushed out by Somali and African forces two years ago.

Witnesses said Ann-Margarethe Livh, an opposition Left Party city councillor in Stockholm, was returning to her hotel after giving a speech at the University of Somalia when the gunmen struck near the Turkish embassy.

Student Ahmed Dek said she flung open the rear door of the car and ran under a hail of bullets towards the university. She was bleeding badly from her left side, he said.

The attack was motivated by a kidnap

Police said an officer guarding her and a man said to be her translator were killed. A Somali woman from Sweden was also wounded, they said.

Swedish media reported that a Swedish-Somali man from Stockholm was shot dead in the attack, citing sources. The Swedish Foreign Ministry said it was investigating the reports.

“Livh has a gunshot wound and is on her way out of the country. A group of party members that she is part of have been shot at,” Left Party official Aron Etzler said.

Livh is the most prominent Left Party politician in Stockholm. A party spokeswoman told Sweden’s TT news agency the group was in Mogadishu “in connection with an international project within the work of the Left Party”.

Bile Ibrahim, of the criminal investigation department, said police were investigating an attempted kidnap.

“Our initial investigation shows that the attack was motivated by a kidnap of the white woman,” Ibrahim said.

“The men were three to four, armed with AK47s and they blocked the road in front of the car which the white woman was on board. They began to fire at the driver and the others. They did not want to kill her, but to kidnap her.”