Gunmen stormed into luxury Radisson hotel of the Rezidor Hotel Group in Bamako, Mali’s capital, on Friday shouting “God is great!” in Arabic. At this moment two terrorists took 170 hostages (140 guests, 30 employees) according to a senior security force source and other witnesses in the area. They then freed 70 who could recite passages of the Koran.

A Chinese guest told China’s state news agency Xinhua via a mobile app that he was among a number of Chinese guests trapped there.

Gunfire was heard from the hotel early in the morning in what was viewed as an effort to take hostages. Witnesses say that automatic weapon fire could be heard from outside the 190-room luxury hotel that is popular with expats working in Mali.

“It’s all happening on the seventh floor, jihadists are firing in the corridor,” a security source said.

Police have sealed off the area in a developing situation.

Last August, suspected Islamist gunmen killed 13 people, including five UN workers, during a hostage siege at another hotel in the central Malian town of Sevare.