Five people, three Europeans and two Malians, have been killed after gunmen raided a restaurant in Bamako, the capital of Mali, police have said. Two armed suspects have been arrested, according to a senior intelligence official.
Armed commandos stormed
the “La Terrasse” open-air bar in the Hippodrome district of
Bamako late on Friday night, triggering a shootout in which a
French national was killed.
The attackers continued to fire in the vicinity of the
restaurant, killing a Belgian citizen, as well as a police
officer and a Malian property caretaker.
“This is a terrorist attack, although we’re waiting for
clarification. Provisionally, there are four dead — one French
national, a Belgian and two Malians,” a police officer told
AFP. These four also include a policeman who had been passing the
restaurant.
A third European, whose nationality hasn’t been revealed, was
dead on arrival at the Gabriel Toure hospital in Bamako, a
hospital source told AFP, adding that eight people were injured
in the assault.
Photo d’une des victimes de l’attentat de #Bamako#Mali.
pic.twitter.com/kzYPhHovub
— Abdoulaye Jourdan (@Adouuuu) March
7, 2015
Witnesses on Twitter
wrote that one of the assailants had been sitting in the
restaurant before he opened fire. Following the onslaught, an
accomplice reportedly picked the man up and they fled the scene
on a motorbike.
The two suspects were later arrested on a nearby street,
authorities said. The area was sealed off by dozens of policemen
and National Guard officers.
“The zone where the shooting took place is under the control
of the security forces. The security forces are conducting an
operation to ensure there are no other surprises,” a source
told Reuters.
The restaurant on Princess Street is a popular area in the Malian
capital, and is frequented by many European nationals.
French and Belgian authorities condemned the shooting, with
Belgium’s Foreign Minister Didier Reynders saying, ” it may
be in any case a terrorist attack.”
Le président @fhollande dénonce le lâche
attentat perpétré cette nuit au Mali contre un restaurant de
Bamako pic.twitter.com/kP68s53lNi
— Élysée (@Elysee) March 7,
2015
French President Francois Hollande also denounced it as a
“cowardly attack,” according to a statement from the
Elysee Palace, while the country’s Foreign Minister Laurent
Fabius added that the assault reinforced France’s resolve to
“fight terrorism in all its forms.”
The French Embassy in Mali called upon French nationals to be
cautious when leaving their homes. Also the US Embassy in Mali
issued a warning recommending, “that any of its staff who are not
home go home at this time. Private US citizens are advised to
follow the same precaution.”
Almost two years after a French-led operation pushed Islamic
militants from the north of the country, separatist groups
continue to launch attacks in the area. The deployment of a
10,000-strong UN peacekeeping mission is still struggling to
contain the violence, forcing a regional election in the country
to be postponed for a second time.