Gunmen stormed Libya’s parliament on Tuesday and started shooting, forcing lawmakers to abandon a vote on the country’s next prime minister, a parliamentary spokesman said.

Spokesman Omar Hmeidan told Reuters that several people had been wounded in the shooting by a gunman linked to one of the defeated candidates for prime minister. He gave no name.

Lawmakers were running away from the building, witnesses said.

The government of the oil-producing North African state has been unable to control armed militias who helped topple Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 but refuse to disarm and have carved out regional fiefdoms.

Hmeidan said that at the time of the shooting, deputies had started the final vote on a replacement for Premier Abdullah al-Thinni, who resigned two weeks ago.

In the first round of the vote, businessman Ahmed Maiteeq came in first out of seven candidates. A second-round vote between Maiteeq and runner-up Omar al-Hasi was just getting underway when gunmen burst into the assembly.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)