Bamako: Islamic extremists armed with guns and throwing grenades stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital on Friday morning, killing at least three people and initially taking numerous hostages, authorities said. The Brussels-based Rezidor Hotel group that operates the hotel said the assailants had "locked in" 140 guests and 30 employees.
Malian troops reacted quickly. As people ran for their lives near the hotel along a dirt road, the soldiers in full combat gear pointed the way to safety. Within hours, local TV images showed heavily armed troops in what appeared to be a lobby area.
In New Delhi, External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson said 20 Indians are among the 170 guests and staff inside the hotel under the siege of gunmen. "According to the current information, there are 20 Indians staying in the hotel. Our Ambassador is continuously in touch with them and monitoring the situation," the spokesperson said.
These nationals are employees of a Dubai-based company and were staying in the hotel permanently, he added. Malian special forces were freeing hostages "floor by floor," Malian army commander Modibo Nama Traoresaid.
At least 30 had been freed and Malian security forces were trying to make contact with the assailants, he said. Traore said at least one guest earlier reported that the attackers instructed him to recite verses from the Quran before he was allowed to leave the hotel.
It was not immediately clear which Muslim extremist groups might be behind the attack, which unfolded one week after the attacks on Paris that killed 129 people. A handful of jihadi groups seized the northern half of Mali, a former French colony, in 2012 and were ousted from cities and towns by a French military intervention. French President Francois Hollande said: "We should yet again stand firm and show our solidarity with a friendly country, Mali."
Traore said 10 gunmen had stormed the hotel shouting "Allahu Akbar," or "God is great," in Arabic before firing on the guards. A staffer at the hotel who gave his name as Tamba Diarra said over the phone that the attackers used grenades in the assault. The US Embassy in Mali told citizens to shelter in place amid reports of an "ongoing active shooter operation" at the hotel in Bamako.
Monique Kouame Affoue Ekonde, from Ivory Coast, said she and six other people, including a Turkish woman, were escorted out by security forces as the gunmen rushed "toward the fifth or sixth floor."
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