(Bloomberg) -- Somali militant group al-Shabaab killed one passenger and is holding five others hostage after their United Nations helicopter made an emergency landing in territory controlled by the al-Qaeda affiliate, according to a regional minister of internal security.

The UN chopper with soldiers and medical personnel was on an evacuation mission and was forced to land in central Somalia after a mechanical failure, Mohamed Abdi Adan, the minister of internal security of the Galmudug state, said by phone Wednesday. 

“Two of the seven passengers, one of whom was a Somali national, were able to escape with rifles, but another person who attempted to escape was killed by the militants,” Abdi Adan said. “Militants took hostage the remaining individuals after the helicopter crashed.”

The UN confirmed in a brief statement on Thursday that there had been an “aviation incident” involving a UN-contracted helicopter in Galmudug state and that response efforts are under way. 

Al-Shabaab has waged an insurgency in the Horn of Africa nation since 2006 and holds several strongholds in central and southern Somalia.

(Updates with UN statement in fourth paragraph.)

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