A Briton is said to be among 26 people who have died after gunmen launched a 11-hour attack at a hotel in Somalia.
The all-night siege started on Friday evening with a suicide car bomb blast outside the Asasey Hotel in the southern port city of Kismayo before militants stormed into the building.
Somalia's al-Shabaab Islamic rebels, who are trying to topple the country's central government, have claimed responsibility.
Jubbaland region's president Ahmed Mohamed said on Saturday that the death toll had risen to 26, including three Kenyans, two Americans, a Briton, one Canadian and three Tanzanians.
Fifty-six people, including two Chinese, were injured, he told reporters.
Among those killed were a presidential candidate for upcoming regional elections, while at least two journalists and a UN agency staff member were also reported to have lost their lives.
Mogadishu-based independent radio station Radio Dalsan also confirmed that Canadian journalist Hodan Nalayeh and her husband, Farid Jama Suleiman, died in the attack.
The British person said to have been killed has not yet been named, but the British Foreign Office said: "We are in touch with the local Somalia authorities and seeking more information following an explosion in Kismayo."
The attack took place when local elders and politicians were meeting at the hotel to discuss approaching regional elections.
Most of the victims were patrons of the hotel, which is often frequented by politicians and local officials, officials said.
Regional president Mohamed said the 11-hour attack was ended by security officials on Saturday morning.
One of the attackers was the suicide bomber, while two were shot dead and one was captured alive by security forces, he added.
Police had earlier said that all the attackers were shot dead, but said many people had been rescued alive.
Jubbaland's minister of planning, Just Aw Hersi, confirmed the deaths of several prominent Somalis on Twitter. He said some of the foreigners also held dual Somali citizenship.
"We admit, we are heartbroken by their sudden violent deaths. But rest assured, we are also as mad as hell because of it," he tweeted.
The Somalia office of the UNs International Organization for Migration said one of its local staff members, Abdifatah Mohamed, was among those killed.
SADO Somalia, a local non-governmental organisation, said its executive director Abdullahi Isse Abdulle had also died in the attack.
After the attack, many people paid tribute to Ms Nalayeh.
Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, general secretary of the Federation of Somali Journalists, said in a statement: "We are saddened and outraged by this loss of life, and condemn in the strongest possible terms this appalling massacre."
"I'm absolutely devastated by the news of the death of our dear sister Hodan Nalayeh and her husband in a terrorist attack in Somalia today.
Omar Suleiman, a Texas-based imam who knew the victim, wrote on social media: "What a loss to us. Her beautiful spirit shined through her work and the way she treated people."
Ms Nalayeh was born in Somalia in 1976, but spent most of her life in Canada, first in Alberta and then in Toronto.
She founded Integration TV, an international web-based video production company aimed at Somali viewers around the world. She was the first Somali woman media owner in the world.
Al-Shabaab was ejected from Mogadishu in 2011 and has since been driven from most of its other strongholds.
The al-Qaeda linked group was driven out of Kismayo in 2012.
Abdiasis Abu Musab, al-Shabaab's military operation spokesman said on Saturday they had killed 30 people and four of its fighters were also dead.
The city's port had been a major source of revenue for the group from taxes, charcoal exports and levies on arms and other illegal imports.
Kismayo is the commercial capital of Jubbaland, a region of southern Somalia still partly controlled by al-Shabaab.
Al-Shabaab remains a major security threat with fighters frequently carrying out bombings in Somalia and neighbouring Kenya, whose troops form part of the African Union-mandated peacekeeping force that helps defend the Somali government.
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