Update: Gunmen seize 170 hostages at Radisson hotel in Bamako, Mali

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

''Mali security forces storming besieged Bamako hotel,'' Minister said. ''At least three hostages killed in Bamako hotel siege. Mali security forces evacuate around a dozen hostages from hotel.''

Xinhua News Agency is confirming,  ''at least seven Chinese hostages in Mali siege.''

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, an AFP journalist said.

Security sources said the gunmen were "jihadists" who had entered the hotel compound in a car that had diplomatic plates.

"It's all happening on the seventh floor, jihadists are firing in the corridor," one security source told AFP.

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 jihadists in west Africa under Operation Barkhane.

Source: AFP