Horror as masked man opens fire in Mali nightclub

[PressToTeleport]

Horror as masked man opens fire in Mali nightclub

AFP
March 8, 2015, 4:03 am

Bamako (AFP) - The music played and the dance floor was filling on another night of partying at Bamako's popular La Terrasse, when the slaughter began.

Moments later, the body of a French national could be seen being stretchered out, while shocked survivors emerged into the Malian capital's lively Hippodrome neighbourhood -- an expat favourite -- to recount how a masked man had set upon the nightclub with automatic gunfire and grenades.

The attack also left a Belgian and three Malians, including a policeman,dead while at least eight people, three Swiss among them, were rushed to hospital.

"It's terrible, a terrorist act," police commissioner Mamadou Keita told AFP at the scene.

Outside the club survivors of the violence were standing around, unsure of what to do, shaking their heads in disbelief and recounting the horror that had unfolded.

"I saw a black 4X4 vehicle parked some way away. A big man got out. He headed towards me," a waiter told AFP.

"He went up to the terrace. He began by throwing grenades, and then he unleashed bursts of automatic gunfire."

The two-floor establishment has a nightclub on the groundfloor and an outdoor bar, as well as dining area upstairs.

Detectives, who have arrested two suspects, believe the attacker threw two grenades at a patrol outside as he escaped, killing a police officer -- one of the three Malian victims.

The gunman is believed to have had at least one accomplice with him.

"The killer came here because there were foreigners. He wanted to kill foreigners, that's for sure," the waiter told AFP.

The manager of La Terrasse, who asked to have his name withheld, described the "terrible shock" of the attack.

"I remember the shooter came up to where we were. I recall him firing shots and throwing grenades," he said.

"People fled, others jumped from the (terrace). There was panic.... After the killer came back down and left. His accomplice was waiting at the bottom with a black vehicle."

- 'Scared to death' -

Zakaria Maiga, who said he was a friend of the French victim, told AFP he had been tasked with identifying the body at the morgue, as his companion had no family in Bamako.

The pair would go out together in Bamako every Friday night, he said.

"Last night we agreed to meet at 11:30 pm. Between midnight and 1:00 am, while (my friend) and I danced side-by-side on the floor, the shooting started," he told AFP.

Maiga said there was immediate panic and he threw himself to the ground, before escaping the club and running to safety.

"Things happened too fast. I did not see the shooter," he said.

News of the atrocity spread quickly among the restaurateurs, bar owners and patrons of the venues dotting Rue Princesse and within half an hour every single one had closed.

"It may be a long time before we see European customers again," the owner of bar next door to La Terrasse told AFP.

Dozens of terrified people who had scrambled desperately to find hiding places on the ground floor nightclub area of La Terrasse began to emerge a full two hours after the tragedy.

"I heard shots, I was scared to death. We were hidden on the ground floor but we could hear everything that was happening upstairs on the terrace," said Malian student Fili Kanoute.