Gunmen took 170 hostages during an attack on the Hotel Radisson in the Malian capital, Bamako, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the hotel group.
“The attack is ongoing,” United Nations spokesman Olivier Salgado said by phone from the capital. “What we know is that the attackers are in the hotel and have automatic weapons.”
UN forces and Malian government troops are at the scene, he said. The French and U.S. embassies confirmed that the attack was under way.
Mali was plunged into violence after a military coup in March 2012 left a power vacuum that allowed Islamist militants to join with separatists and seize northern areas of the country. While French and UN forces pushed the militants out of most of those strongholds in 2013, the government is struggling to regain authority there.
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