A number of Chinese guests are among those trapped in the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital Bamako, China's state-run Xinhua news agency is reporting.
"A Chinese guest surnamed Chen told Xinhua via WeChat mobile app that he was among a number of Chinese guests trapped in the hotel," Xinhua said.
It is not known exactly how many Chinese guests are among those trapped in the hotel.
An eye witness to the Mali hotel attack says that the gunmen arrived in a car this morning with diplomatic plates. They were wearing masks.
The gunmen who attacked the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali are moving from floor to floor, a senior security source says.
The official Twitter account of Mali's President's office has tweeted about the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako.
Here's what we know so far about the siege in Mali:
-- The attack began at 0700 GMT, according to Reuters.
-- As many as 10 gunmen have taken 170 people -- 140 guests and 30 employees -- hostage at the American-owned Radisson Blu hotel in Mali's capital, Bamako.
-- The gunmen shouted "Allahu Akbar," (God is great) as they stormed the hotel, a security source told Reuters.
-- At least three hostages are dead, according to an unnamed Malian minister who spoke to the AFP news agency.
-- The gunmen have released some hostages able to recite verses of the Quran, according to Reuters' security source.
-- AFP also says that around a dozen hostages have been escorted from the hotel.
-- A Malian minister told AFP that Mali security forces have stormed the hotel.
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest person, has tweeted to deny reports in some media outlets that he was one of the hostages in the Mali hotel siege.
Dangote says he was in Mali yesterday.
AFP say at least three people killed in the Mali hotel siege. It's still not clear to which group the gunmen belong.
Some 170 people have been taken hostage at a luxury hotel in Mali's capital Bamako by gunmen shouting "Islamic slogans," Reuters is reporting.
The identity of the group to which the Bamako gunmen belong is not yet known.
Some 10 gunmen are thought to have stormed the Radisson Blu hotel, which is near government ministries and diplomatic offices.
The hostages include French nationals, "at least seven" Chinese people and six Turkish Airlines staff members, reports are saying.
There are unconfirmed reports that several people have been killed.
The New York Times World Twitter account tweeted this AP photo of people fleeing the hotel after it was stormed by militants.
The Paris prosecutor says that a passport belonging to Hasna Aitboulahcen has been found in a handbag in an apartment in Saint-Denis raided by police this week.
Aitboulahcen has been named by police sources as the female suicide bomber who blew herself up following an exchange with police at the start of the raid.
The Paris prosecutor's office warned that Aitboulahcen has not yet been formally identified.
French news sites are reporting that the suspected ringleader of the November 13 Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was seen on closed-circuit video on the night of the attacks at the Croix de Chavaux metro station in the eastern Paris suburb of Montreuil.
BFM TV reports that its sources say Abaaoud was seen on video footage from two cameras at the metro station at around 10 p.m. on November 13, at the time when the massacre at the Bataclan stadium was ongoing.
The Croix de Chavaux metro station is 250 meters from the place where a black Seat car believed to have been used by some of the Paris attackers was found. Several Kalashnikovs were found in the car, French judicial sources said.