Gunmen kill 16 in Ivory Coast beach raid

At least 14 civilians and two soldiers have been killed in an attack by gunmen at an Ivory Coast beach resort popular with tourists, according to the country's president.

Witnesses described panic as the attackers sprayed bullets across the beach and opened fire with rifles as they entered the L'Etoile du Sud (Southern Star) hotel in Grand-Bassam, which is around 25 miles east of the capital Abidjan.

The hotel was one of three targeted, according to the country's Interior Ministry.

The raiders were 'heavily armed and wearing balaclavas' and they 'fired at guests', a witness told AFP news agency, adding that the large hotel had been 'full of expats in the current heatwave'.

One of the dead was French, it has been confirmed, while a spokesman for the UK Foreign Office said they were 'urgently' trying to establish whether any Britons had been among the victims.

Witness Luc Gnago told Sky News he had seen six bodies on the beach - one of which he thought was 'an assailant' - and one in the hotel, which he described as 'a white man'.

Another witness, Marcel Guy, told the Associated Press he saw at least four gunmen toting Kalashnikov rifles and hunting for victims on the beach. He said one approached two children, and spoke in Arabic.

One child knelt and prayed, but the other was shot dead.

'The Christian boy was shot and killed right in front of my eyes,' Mr Guy said.

Residents told of hearing the gunfire and venturing from their houses, before realising what was happening and returning to hide.

A dozen ambulances headed to the scene, joined by military vehicles with heavy machine guns and armed traditional hunters known as Dozo.

A witness told French broadcaster BFMTV he saw 'the body of a European woman' and that 'two or three' masked attackers were involved.

The country's Interior Minister Hamed Bakayoko said six terrorists had been 'neutralised' and a jihad monitoring group later reported al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb had claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sky News Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley said the attack was part of a 'bloody pattern' and is similar to that seen last year in Tunisia, which killed 38 people, including 30 Britons.

Over the past few months, attacks have been launched on luxury hotels in the capitals of Ivory Coast's neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso, leaving dozens of people dead and West African nations re-assessing security in the face of the growing threat from jihadis.

Kiley said terror groups were 'biting back' in an effort to 'de-stabilise' the West African nations fighting terrorism.

Grand-Bassam is home to around 80,000 people and has UNESCO World Heritage status due to the architecture from its French colonial past.