Russian President Vladimir Putin has expressed his condolences to Mali over the attack, as a security source revealed a few suspects were still at large.
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The three Chinese citizens killed in the hotel attack were executives from the state-owned China Railway Construction Corp, the company said in a statement on its website.
An African Jihadist group affiliated with al Qaida has claimed responsibility for the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali which claimed several lives.
Malian troops responded by going floor to floor freeing the hostages, Malian army commander Modibo Nama Traore told the Associated Press.
A receptionist said the attackers, “armed to the teeth”, were shouting “Allahu Akbar” (Allah is the greatest) while cutting a white man’s throat. More than 180 people were held before being freed by a combination of Malian and worldwide special forces.
More than 100 other hostages, many of them foreigners, including 20 Indians, were rescued by French and Malian forces on Friday night.
“This evening, the death toll is heavy and awful: 21 dead, two [assailants] amongst them, and seven wounded”, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita told Al Jazeera on Friday evening.
A United Nations official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said 12 bodies were found in the basement and 15 on the second floor.
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Keita announced a 10-day nationwide state of emergency beginning Friday at midnight. “It’s unbelievable to us that she has been killed in this senseless act of violence and terrorism”. Xi condoled the families of the victims, and asked the government agencies to increase work to protect citizens overseas and called on the global community to do more to prevent violent acts. There were conflicting reports about how many gunmen were involved in the attack. Numerous guests were in their rooms when the attack began, the security ministry spokesman said. The area remains vulnerable to attacks despite a military operation led by France in 2013, which came after the UN Security Council passed a resolution on the deployment of a peacekeeping force known as the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA).
