Five killed in Mali restaurant terror attack

Three Europeans and two locals were shot dead on Saturday in a busy restaurant in the Malian capital in what security sources described as a terrorist attack.

At least one gunman entered La Terrasse in an area of Bamako popular with expatriates shortly after midnight and opened fire, according to police and an AFP correspondent on the scene in the aftermath.

“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 policeman told AFP, adding that the dead included a police officer who had been passing the restaurant.

A source at the Gabriel Toure hospital in Bamako said a third European, whose nationality was not immediately clear, had died on arrival, while eight people were wounded.

Firefighters carried the body of the French national from the restaurant in Bamako’s lively Hippodrome district, according to an AFP correspondent who witnessed the aftermath.

In moments after the attack the body of the police officer and a guard of a private home could be seen in the street outside, while a little further on the body of the Belgian national was also visible.

Dozens of police officers secured the area but the few witnesses to the attack were initially refusing to testify, fearing reprisals.

The French embassy in Bamako issued a message to all French nationals in the city to exercise caution if they had to leave their homes.