The Guardian reports that the shooting broke out about midday local time. Radio Mosaique, a private radio station, reported that three men dressed in military-style clothing may have taken hostages inside the museum, adjacent to the national parliament building.

Interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told the radio station that one of the eight dead was a Tunisian.

The Bardo museum, which chronicles Tunisia's history and includes one of the world's largest collections of Roman mosaics, is one of the country's biggest tourist attractions.

Tunisian security forces were surrounding two militants holed up inside the Bardo museum that shares grounds with the country's parliament on Wednesday, an interior ministry spokesman said.