Tunisian soldiers stand guard outside the Bouchoucha army barracks in Tunis on May 25, 2015 after a soldier opened fire at his colleagues. (AFP)
A Tunisian soldier opened fire on comrades near parliament on Monday, killing some of them before being shot dead, but the interior ministry said it was not a "terrorist" attack.
The shooting at the Bouchoucha barracks, not far from the Bardo National Museum where jihadist gunmen killed 21 foreign tourists and a policeman in March, triggered a security alert across the Bardo district, AFP correspondents reported.
"There were dead and wounded," interior ministry spokesman Mohamed Ali Aroui told AFP.
"The incident which took place at the Bouchoucha barracks is not connected with a terrorist operation," he added.
Defence ministry spokesman Belhassen Oueslati said the shooter had been killed but declined to give a death toll among the other soldiers.
"The armed forces took control of the situation after firing on the soldier," he told AFP.
Neither spokesman gave any motive for the shooting.
An AFP correspondent heard two volleys of gunfire from inside the barracks at around 8:45 am (0745 GMT), before an ambulance emerged, its siren blaring.
The interior ministry's elite Counterterrorism Brigade deployed in force across the area, an AFP photographer reported.
Police with sniffer dogs checked parked vehicles for fear of car bombs in the district, which also houses two police barracks.
Tunis has been on high alert ever since the March massacre at the National Bardo Museum, which dealt a heavy blow to the vital tourism industry.
The North African nation has seen an upsurge in Islamist militancy since the Arab Spring revolt which toppled veteran strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in 2011.