MOGADISHU, Somalia - A Briton has survived an apparent attempt on his life at the central prison in Mogadishu, the Somali capital on Sunday, authorities said, Garowe Online reports.

Anthony Thomas Cox, the British national was wounded in the neck when two men said to be ISIL inmates attacked him with razor blades. He suffered a non-life-threatening wound in the jail assault.

A court in Mogadishu ordered Cox, 48, to be kept in jail after he has been arrested in Mogadishu's Aden Adde Airport on January 19 after Somali police found tear gas canisters in his luggage during checking.

The man who has been working for an unnamed foreign private company operating in the capital was trying to catch an Ethiopian airline flight to Addis Ababa at the time of his arrest.

The court has convicted him of putting public safety in danger and for failing to reveal possession of the explosive materials in his suitcase to the security forces.

Al-Shabab and ISIL militants, some waiting to face the firing squad for carrying out attacks are believed to be held in the prison facility, where the Briton was injured. 

GAROWE ONLINE