Gunmen Take 170 Hostage at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako Friday Nov 20,2015

 

Gunmen went on a shooting rampage at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako on Friday (Nov 20), seizing 170 guests and staff in an ongoing hostage-taking

Radisson Blu, an upscale brand of the Radisson hotel chain, has more than 230 luxury hotels and resorts worldwide

The Rezidor Hotel Group, the US-based parent company of Radisson Blu, said two people were holding 170 people hostage. The company said it was "aware of the hostage-taking that is ongoing at the property today, 20th November 2015. As per our information two persons have locked in 140 guests and 30 employees".
It added in a statement: "Our safety and security teams and our corporate team are in constant contact with the local authorities in order offer any support possible to reinstate safety and security at the hotel."

Automatic weapons fire could be heard from outside the 190-room hotel in the city-centre, where security forces have set up a security cordon

The gunmen had arrived at about 7am local time, and forced through the security barrier outside the hotel,

Malian soldiers, police and special forces were on 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

Malian special forces approach the back of the Radisson Blu Hotel in preparation to raid the building and take out the hostages  

The shooting at the Radisson follows a nearly 24-hour siege and hostage-taking at another hotel in August in the central Malian 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 also killed in an attack at a restaurant in Bamako in March in the first such incident in the capital.

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

Northern Mali fell in March-April 2012 to Al-Qaeda-linked militant groups long concentrated in the area before being ousted by an ongoing French-led military operation launched in January 2013. Despite the peace deal, large swathes of Mali remain beyond the control of government and foreign forces.