CAIRO — Libya’s parliament speaker said Sunday he was the subject of an assassination attempt during a visit to the southern city of Sebha, Egypt’s state-run Middle East News Agency reported.

Mohammed Magariaf said on Libyan state television that the hotel in which he was staying in the southern town came under attack and his personal security exchanged fire with the attackers over a period of three hours, MENA reported. The incident took place two days ago, MENA cited him as saying.

Meanwhile, a security official in the Libyan city of Benghazi told The Associated Press that police are searching for a senior official who was abducted while investigating the recent assassination of the city's police chief.

The official told AP on Saturday that Lt. Col. Abdel-Salam al-Mahdawi was abducted from a Benghazi street late Wednesday when assailants pulled him from a vehicle. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

Al-Mahdawi heads Benghazi's criminal investigations unit tasked with looking into the November killing of National Security chief Col. Farag el-Dersi in the city.