Six Isis militants have been killed after massacring at least 22 people in a shooting attack on a restaurant in Bangladesh.
Police said at least 13 hostages had been freed from the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka, where one suspected gunman was captured in a military operation.
An Isis-affiliated propaganda agency released photos from inside the restaurant during the raid, appearing to showing the bodies of women and men on the floor in pools of blood.
The group released a statement saying “Islamic State commandos” attacked the restaurant, describing it as “frequented by foreigners”.
Bangladeshi police would not confirm the terrorists’ claim to have killed 24 victims and wounded 40, saying that two police officers had died, but a military official later said 20 foreign hostages were also dead.
Seven Japanese people, who worked as consultants for the country’s foreign aid agency, were among those unaccounted for and several Italian nationals were also believed to be among the hostages killed.
Philip Hammond said the Foreign and Commonwealth Office was investigating whether any British citizens were caught up in the "appalling act of violence" and sent his thoughts to the victims and their families.
Witnesses described up to nine militants shouting “Allahu Akbar”, meaning “God is great” as they burst into the Holey Artisan Bakery at 9.20pm local time on Friday (4.20pm BST).
A police officer at the scene said that when security forces tried to enter the premises at the beginning of the siege they were met with a hail of bullets and grenades.
Assailants exchanged sporadic gunfire with police outside for several hours as negotiators attempted to contact the militants before troops raided the building.
Lori Ann Walsh Imdad, principal of the nearby American Standard School, told The Independent: “I’ve been hearing gunshots all night long and I’ve seen people running.”
Gowher Rizvi, an adviser to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, said the crisis started when security guards in the Gulshan district of Dhaka noticed several gunmen outside a medical centre.
When the guards approached, the gunmen ran into the Holey Artisan cafe, which was packed with people waiting for tables, he said.
A cafe employee who escaped told local television that around 20 customers were in the restaurant at the time, most of them foreigners, and 15 to 20 staff.
The Holey Artisan Bakery, popular with foreign officials and expatriates, sits in the affluent diplomatic quarter of Bangladesh’s capital near the embassies of the US, Turkey, Germany and other nations.
Bangladeshi’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, vowed to fight terrorism and urged people with information to come forward.
“Because of the effort of the joint force, the terrorists could not flee,” she said.
“Anyone who believes in religion cannot do such act. They do not have any religion, their only religion is terrorism.”
The restaurant attack marked a major escalation in two years of increasingly frequent atrocities by Islamist militants in Bangladesh, sparking hundreds of arrests.
A string of machete attacks have been claimed by Isis, al-Qaeda and local groups, targeting secular writers, LGBT activists and religious minorities among others, with the latest victim being a Hindu priest hacked to death at a temple in Jhenaidah on Friday.
Bangladeshi authorities have persistently denied Isis or al-Qaeda have a presence in the country, sparking warnings from counter-terror monitors including the Site Intelligence Group, which urged the government to “face the truth.”
Security officials say two local militant groups, Ansar-al-Islam and Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen, are responsible for the violence.
Isis announced its presence in the country late last year and analysts believe they are recruiting from pre-existing extremist groups who have been carrying out attacks since 2013.
It has been increasingly advertising its alleged expansion into the country through official propaganda channels, with two large features on the subject in a recent issue of its English language magazine.
Calling the faction its “Bengal” province, Isis has celebrated several machete attacks and vowed to continue targeting Shia and Ahmadi Muslims, “crusaders”, Hindus and missionaries.
