Gunmen storm popular tourist resort in Mali, killing two people

Security forces have so far rescued 32 guests from a Mali resort that is under attack by gunmen, a security ministry spokesman says.

He had no further detail, following the attack.

Gunmen stormed Le Campement Kangaba in Dougourakoro, to the east of the capital Bamako, a resort foreign residents often visit for weekend breaks, in the afternoon.

Earlier security ministry spokesman Baba Cisse said two people had been killed.

"The first victim was a French-Gabonese citizen. We are in the process of confirming the other's nationality," said Mr Cisse.

"Security forces are in place. Campement Kangaba is blocked off and an operation is under way," Cisse said by telephone earlier. "The situation is under control."

Witness Boubacar Sangare was just outside the compound during the attack. "Westerners were fleeing the encampment while two plain-clothes police exchanged fire with the assailants," he said.

"There were four national police vehicles and French soldiers in armoured vehicles on the scene." He added that a helicopter was circling overhead.

A spokesman for French forces in Mali declined to immediately comment.

Security has gradually worsened across Mali since French forces pushed back allied Islamist and Tuareg rebel fighters in 2013 from swathes of the north they had occupied the previous year.

Initially concentrated in the desert north, attacks have increasingly struck the centre and south, around the capital Bamako. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and another militant group claimed responsibility for an attack on a Bamako hotel in late 2015 in which 20 people were killed.

French troops and a 10,000-strong UN peacekeeping force have battled to stabilise the former French colony, which is riven by ethnic conflict and plagued by dozens of armed groups.