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Update: More than 100 hostages taken by gunmen in Mali's luxury hotel - Latest reports
02:38Unknown
According to Agence France-Presse, 170 guests and the entire staff at the Radisson hotel are being held by two attackers although other sources said there were at least ten gunmen.
The area around the Radisson hotel is being sealed off by security forces as they try to assess the situation, an anonymous official told Reuters. “Very early in the morning there was gunfire,” the security official said. “Apparently it’s an attempt to take hostages.”
The perpetrators behind the attacks are armed with automatic weapons, a source was cited as telling AFP.
The hotel is considered the most secure in Bamako and is frequented by diplomats and members of international organizations.
The African country’s northern region was taken over by Islamic extremists after a military coup in 2012, following which a French-led military campaign the following year scattered them across the country. Since then, Mali has seen periodic attacks such as the one in March this year, where armed assailants shot five people at a popular Bamako restaurant.
France currently maintains a force of about 1,000 troops in the country and were said to be involved in the security operation around the hotel.
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