Mali hotel attack: Dozens dead, more than 100 freed after gunmen take hostages at Radisson Blu in Bamako

More than 100 hostages held by gunmen in a luxury hotel in Mali's capital have been freed after a siege left at least 27 people dead, officials say.

Malian commandos stormed the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako after gunmen took 170 people, including many foreigners, hostage on Friday.

"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 following the stand-off, which lasted several hours.

A UN official said UN peacekeepers searching the hotel made a preliminary count of 27 bodies.

Peacekeepers saw 12 dead bodies in the basement of the hotel and another 15 on the second floor, the UN official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

He added that the UN troops were still helping Malian authorities search the hotel.

An African Jihadist group affiliated with Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Al-Mourabitoun, a group based in northern Mali and made up mostly of Tuaregs and Arabs, posted a message on Twitter saying it was responsible, but the claim could not immediately be verified.

A security source said the gunmen had dug in on the seventh floor of the hotel as special forces advanced on them.

US and French special forces were on site to help in the rescue operation.

State television showed footage of troops in camouflage fatigues wielding AK47s in the lobby of the Radisson Blu. In the background, a body lay under a brown blanket at the bottom of a flight of stairs.

Mr Traore said the gunmen burst through security at the hotel entrance at 7:00am local time, spraying the area with gunfire and shouting "Allahu Akbar", or "God is greatest" in Arabic.

Occasional bursts of gunfire were heard as the assailants went through the seven-storey building, room-by-room and floor-by-floor, one senior security source and a witness said.

Hostages who could recite Koran released

Some people were freed by the attackers after showing they could recite verses from the Koran, while others were brought out by security forces or managed to escape under their own steam.

One of the rescued hostages, celebrated Guinean singer Sekouba 'Bambino' Diabate, said he had overheard two of the assailants speaking in English as they searched the room next to his.

"We heard shots coming from the reception area. I didn't dare go out of my room because it felt like this wasn't just simple pistols — these were shots from military weapons," Mr Diabate said.

"The attackers went into the room next to mine. I stayed still, hidden under the bed, not making a noise," he said. "I heard them say in English 'Did you load it?', 'Let's go'."

A US defence official in Washington said about 25 US military personnel were in Bamako at the time of the incident, and were helping to move civilians to safety.

They later said "at least six" Americans had been rescued from the hostage situation.

Prior to the end of the stand-off, Air France said 12 flight crew were in the building but all were extracted safely.

A Turkish official said five Turkish Airlines staff had also managed to flee while Chinese state news agency Xinhua said three of 10 Chinese tourists caught inside had been rescued.

Twenty Indian nationals were also among the hostages, an Indian foreign ministry spokesman said.

Seven Algerians were reportedly freed, a minister said.

Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita cut short a trip to a regional summit in Chad to return to Bamako, his office said.

The shooting follows a nearly 24-hour siege and hostage-taking at another hotel in August in the central Malian town of Sevare.

Four soldiers, five UN workers and four attackers were killed.

Islamist groups have waged 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 jihadist 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.

AFP/Reuters