Gunmen have launched an attack on a Radisson hotel in Mali’s capital, Bamako, seizing about 170 people in an ongoing hostage-taking that has left at least three people dead, according to the military.
Security forces are storming the hotel and at least a dozen hostages have been freed after the attack by “two or three” assailants, a spokesman for the Malian security ministry told AFP. The identities of the dead have not been confirmed, but one is thought to be a French national.
Military sources said three attackers had been killed, but this could not be confirmed. Ambulances and a convoy of UN vehicles are at the scene.
Live Mali hotel attack: gunmen take hostages in Bamako – live updates
UN official tells CNN that at least three people have been killed as gunmen take hostages at the Radisson hotel in Mali’s capital
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A Malian army commander said the gunmen who stormed the Radisson Blu hotel shouted “Allahu Akbar” before shooting at guards and taking hostages.
Some hostages, including those able to recite verses of the Qur’an, were later released, security sources told Reuters. A security source told AFP that the gunmen were “jihadis” and entered the hotel compound in a car that had diplomatic plates.
“It’s all happening on the seventh floor, jihadists are firing in the corridor,” AFP’s source said.
The hotel is just west of the city centre in a neighbourhood that is home to government ministries and diplomats.