Updates : More than 130 hostages remain inside luxury hotel in Mali

Some 124 guests and 12 employees remain inside the Radisson Blu hotel in Mali’s capital after suspected Islamist gunmen attacked the building and took 170 people hostage, the company said in a statement.

An African jihadist group affiliated with al-Qaida has claimed responsibility for the attack and ongoing hostage-taking in Bamako.

Al-Mourabitoun, a group based in northern Mali and made up mostly of Tuaregs and Arabs, posted a message on Twitter saying it was behind the attack on the Radisson Blu hotel. The claim could not immediately be verified.