Witnesses say the upscale hotel in Burkina Faso’s capital that has been attacked by al-Qa’ida militants, killing at least 20 people, has now caught fire.
The blaze began after commandos trying to free an unknown number of hostages used explosives to enter the building.
Security forces stormed the building more than five hours after it was attacked by suspected Al-Qa’ida militants.
A fire then broke out in the hall of the Splendid Hotel in downtown Ouagadougou and the flames then began spreading inside and out.
Several cars outside the hotel, which is popular with Westerners, also were engulfed in flames after the attackers set them on fire when they launched their assault.
It was not immediately known how many people may have been killed during the siege, though a survivor told hospital director Robert Sangare he estimated the toll could be as high as 20.
At least 15 other people were seriously wounded by bullets and undergoing treatment at the Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital, he said.
The local al-Qa’ida affiliate known as AQIM (al-Qa’ida in the Islamic Maghreb) claimed responsibility online as the attack was ongoing at the 147-room Splendid Hotel, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
In a message posted in Arabic on the militants’ “Muslim Africa” Telegram account, it said fighters had “broke into a restaurant of one of the biggest hotels in the capital of Burkina Faso, and are now entrenched and the clashes are continuing with the enemies of the religion.”
Fighters who spoke by phone later “asserted the fall of many dead Crusaders,” AQIM said, according to SITE.
The hotel is sometimes used by French troops with Operation Barkhane, a force based in Chad and set up to combat Islamist militants across Africa’s vast, arid Sahel region.
AFP reported the Burkina Faso hospital chief as saying at least 20 people had been killed.
“For the dead, we do not have a precise figure, but there are at least 20 dead,” said Mr Sangare, the head of Yalgado Ouedraogo hospital.
“We have had at least 15 wounded with bullet wounds and others who suffered injuries during the panic to escape.”
Witness Vital Nounagnon told the AP that he saw four men attack the hotel and neighbouring Cappuccino Cafe about 7:30pm. Another witness who gave only his first name, Gilbert, said that when Burkinabe security forces first arrived, they turned around rather than confront the attackers.
“But we know that the gunmen won’t get out of the hotel alive,” he said. “Our country is not for jihadists or terrorists. They got it wrong.”
A man who works the day shift at the Cappuccino Cafe, Alpha Ouedraogo, had left just 90 minutes before the attack began. He said he had been in touch by phone with other employees and that more than a dozen of them were in hiding and awaiting rescue.
Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country, has been in turmoil since its longtime president was ousted in a popular uprising in late 2014.
Last September members of a presidential guard launched a coup that lasted only about a week. The transitional government returned to power until Burkina Faso’s November election ushered in new leaders.
Friday’s violence mirrored a devastating attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in neighbouring Mali back in November that left 20 people dead. In that case, Malian troops — backed by French and American special forces — swarmed in to retake the building and free terrified guests and hotel staff during a siege that lasted more than seven hours.
While Burkina Faso has largely been spared from the violence carried out by Islamic extremist groups in Mali, a Romanian national was abducted last April.
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