*** 125 guests and 13 staff still held at hotel in Mali: hotel group | THE DAILY TRIBUNE | KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN

125 guests and 13 staff still held at hotel in Mali: hotel group

Gunmen were Friday holding 125 guests and 13 employees hostage at the luxury Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako, according to the hotel chain.

"We are closely following the hostage-taking incident," said the Rezidor Hotel Group. "According to our latest information 125 guests and 13 employees are still in the building."

"Our highest concern is the safety of all our guests and employees in the hotel. We are in constant contact with the authorities."

A spokesperson for the group told AFP that the figure was the latest available, and took into account the number of hostages freed earlier.

The gunmen are believed to have entered the 190-room hotel around 0700 GMT in a car with diplomatic plates before seizing 170 guests and staff in a suspected Islamist hostage-taking that has left at least three people dead.

Special forces are storming Bamako's Radisson Blu and dozens of hostages have been freed, according to local television and security sources.

Witnesses described "around a dozen" armed assailants, while security sources spoke of two or three "jihadist" attackers.