"The situation is a mess," said Ahmed Farah, a police officer, who did not have details of any casualties.
Witnesses and residents said they heard two loud blasts in quick succession followed by heavy gunfire.
"There were two huge bombs. The first one was a truck bomb, followed a minute or so (later) by another car bomb. My brother was injured at the scene," Halima Ismail, a local resident, told Reuters.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the al Shabaab militant group has been carrying out a series of deadly attacks in Somalia.