Mali investigators uncover 'major attack'

Detectives investigating an explosion at a house in Mali's capital that killed a security guard say they have uncovered plans for a "major attack".

Security forces on Friday said they were alerted when the blast ripped through and "largely destroyed" the private residence in Sirakoro Meguetana, on the outskirts of Bamako.

"This is a major attack that was being readied," a police source said, adding that a businessman from Burkina Faso arrested at the scene on the outskirts of Bamako was beginning to give up details of the plot.

Police found detonators in the wrecked property, according to Moussa Diallo, an inspector at the scene, while officers and neighbours identified a body as a Malian man employed to guard the property.

"For us, this is a terrorist act in preparation. The terrorists were getting ready to terrorise," said a security source in MINUSMA, the United Nations peacekeeping force in Mali.