BAMAKO: Three Europeans were shot dead at a nightclub in Mali's capital early Saturday, in a suspected terror attack that came with the government at a key stage of peace talks with militants in the restive north.
At least one gunman entered the club 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 La Terrasse, a restaurant and nightclub in Bamako's lively Hippodrome district, according to an AFP correspondent who witnessed the aftermath.
In the 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.
Le Combat, a privately-owned daily newspaper in Bamako, said on its website a man and a woman opened fire with "heavy weapons" while a third assailant kept watch at the entrance, although this could not be independently verified.
French President Francois Hollande denounced "with the greatest force the cowardly attack", according to a statement from the presidency.
It said Hollande would meet Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita to offer Paris's help to the former French colony, adding that security had been beefed up at the French embassy and other French installations in the country.
Witnesses said they saw the attackers escape in at least two vehicles, including a black Mercedes and a BMW, the report said.
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.
