Nairobi/Mogadishu - Over 50 people have died and thousands have fled after three days of heavy fighting in the Somali port town of Kismayo, reports said Friday.

According to the online portal of Somali radio station Garowe, fighting broke out on Wednesday after a landmine targeted local clan militia travelling in a truck.

Islamic insurgent group al-Shabaab is believed to be attempting to seize the strategic port from the local clan that controls the town, which lies around 500 kilometres south of Mogadishu.

Garowe said that bodies were lying in the streets and that businesses remained closed as fighting raging throughout the town.

Al-Shabaab, the armed wing of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), has been waging a guerrilla war since Ethiopian troops helped the government oust the UIC in late 2006.

The interim government has been unable to achieve stability in the Horn of Africa country, which has been plagued by chaos and clan-based civil war since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991. (dpa)