BAMAKO: Suspected Isla­mist gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in Mali’s capital on Friday, firing automatic weapons and seizing more than 100 guests and staff in a hostage-taking incident that left at least 22 people dead.

Special forces carried out a dramatic floor-by-floor rescue operation at the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako, according to sources. The siege ended about nine hours after it had begun.

The assault added to fears about the global militant threat a week after the Paris massacre that left 130 people dead although it was not immediately clear if there was a link.

Siege ends nine hours after it began

Malian television broadcast chaotic scenes from inside the hotel as police and other security personnel ushered bewildered and terrified guests along corridors and across the main lobby.

“They currently have no more hostages in their hands and forces are in the process of tracking them down,” Security Minister Salif Traore told a news conference.

Malian security sources said 22 hostages had been killed, adding that French special forces were “participating in operations alongside Malians”. Two of the gunmen had been killed, according to a Malian military source.

“The hostage-taking is over. We are in the process of securing the hotel,” the source said, as civilian protection officers removed the victims in body bags.

Two US special forces troops who happened to be at the nearby US embassy for meetings assisted in the rescue of six Americans.

The palatial 190-room Radisson, regarded as one of west Africa’s best hotels, attracts entrepreneurs, tourists and government officials from across the world with its luxury spa, outdoor pool and conference suites.

Foreign guests described seeing a light-skinned man lying dead on the floor as they escaped early on.

Witnesses described around a dozen armed assailants, while security sources spoke of two or three “jihadist” attackers.

A paramedic said three security guards had been wounded while a correspondent saw a police officer, who had been shot, being evacuated by security forces.

A photographer saw a white man appear several times at a window on the second floor, apparently waving in desperation for help.

The gunmen were said to have entered the hotel around 0700 GMT at the same time as a car with diplomatic number plates, with many guests still in their rooms.

A Belgian regional assembly official was among those killed. India said 20 of its nationals were among the hostages while Xinhua said at least seven Chinese were involved.

Twelve Air France employees were in a “safe place”, the company announced, while seven Turkish Airlines crewmembers were freed.

Seven Algerians and two Germans were also freed while the status of four Belgian guests remained unclear.

Malian soldiers, police and special forces were at the scene as a security perimeter was set up, along with members of the UN’s MINUSMA peacekeeping force in Mali and the French troops fighting militants in west Africa under Operation Barkhane.

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, who was in Chad for a summit of regional leaders, cut short his trip to fly home.

Questions were raised over security at the hotel, with one regular guest, a French consultant, saying metal detector tests were not always conducted on cars entering the compound.

The attack follows a hotel siege in August in the central Mali town of Sevare in which five UN workers were killed along with four soldiers and four attackers.

Five people, including a French citizen and a Belgian, were killed in an assault on a Bamako restaurant in March, the first such incident in the capital targeting Westerners.

Islamist groups have waged attacks in Mali despite a June peace deal between former Tuareg rebels in the north and rival pro-government armed groups.

Published in Dawn, November 21st, 2015