12 dead in Ivory Coast hotel shooting

At least 12 people, including four Europeans, have died in a gun attack at an Ivory Coast beach resort popular with tourists, according to reports.

A witness said four attackers opened fire with rifles as they entered the L’Etoile du Sud (Southern Star) hotel in Grand-Bassam, which is around 25 miles east of the capital Abidjan.

The attackers were “heavily armed and wearing balaclavas” and they “fired at guests”, a witness told AFP news agency, adding that the large hotel had been “full of expats in the current heatwave”.

Witness Luc Gnago told Sky News the shooting had ended and that the beach was now “empty” apart from soldiers and “a few people looking after the bodies”.

Mr Gnago said he had seen six bodies on the beach – one of which he thought was “an assailant” – and one in the hotel, which he described as “a white man”.

Residents told of hearing the gunfire and venturing from their houses, before realising what was happening and returning to hide.

A dozen ambulances headed to the scene, joined by military vehicles with heavy machine guns and armed traditional hunters known as Dozo.

A witness told French broadcaster BFMTV he saw “the body of a European woman” and that “two or three” masked attackers were involved.

It is not yet clear if the gunmen are affiliated with any particular militant group and a hotel receptionist told Associated Press: “We don’t know where they came from and we don’t know where they’ve gone”.

The country’s Interior Ministry said six terrorists had been “neutralised”.

Sky News Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley said the attack was part of a “bloody pattern” and is similar to that seen last year in Tunisia, which killed 38 people, including 30 Britons.

Over the past few months, attacks have been launched on luxury hotels in the capitals of Ivory Coast’s neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso, leaving dozens of people dead and West African nations re-assessing security in the face of the growing threat from jihadists.

Kiley said terror groups were “biting back” in an effort to “de-stabilise” the West African nations fighting terrorism.

“There is a limited amount that can be done (to ensure the safety of tourists), short of turning resorts into fortresses or prisons.”

Grand-Bassam is home to around 80,000 people and has UNESCO World Heritage status due to the architecture from its French colonial past. Sky News