Video has emerged of armed forces preparing to enter a Mali after gunmen took around 170 people hostage.
A crowd can be seen gathering in the road outside the hotel, amid reports hostages have been freed.
Unidentified gunmen stormed the Radisson hotel in capital city Bamako at around 8am on Friday, with reports of grenades and automatic weapons being used in the assault.
Bloomberg reported US and French troops had entered the hotel alongside government forces.
It cited an email from a UN official in the city, which said soldiers were moving from room to room in an effort to clear the hotel.
As many as five people have been reported as dead, with gunfire and explosions being heard by local residents.
"They have locked in about 140 guests and about 30 employees," a spokesperson for the hotel told NBC.
"So the hotel is locked down and there is no possibility to go out or come in."
