MOSCOW - The Russian embassy to Mali has confirmed that an employee of the Russian airline UTair is in the hotel seized by gunmen in the city of Sevare.
‘We have received confirmation of reports that there is a Russian national in the hotel’ embassy press attache Viktor Gorelov said in a telephone interview with Interfax.An operation is under way to free the hostages, he said.
It was reported earlier that a group of gunmen in Mali attacked a hotel in Sevare, where foreigners frequently stay. The latest reports indicated that eight people, including three military servicemen, had been killed in a fire exchange between the gunmen and security forces. Local residents told French journalists that the attackers intended to abduct a group of foreigners staying in the hotel. Certain findings indicate that three South Africans, one Frenchman and one Ukrainian were staying in the hotel.
Gorelov had said earlier that one Russian national could have been staying in the hotel seized by gunmen in Mali.Sevare is a city in the central part of Mali, whose population is about 40,000.
