Security forces in Burkina Faso on Saturday took control of a hotel in the capital Ouagadougou, stormed the previous night by suspected Islamists gunmen who shot and killed several people, reports CBC News.
State-owned television in the African country reported that the operation freed 126 hostages, ending a siege that began around 8.30 p.m. on Friday and left at least 23 people dead.
A spokesman for Burkina Faso's ministry of security and internal affairs said al-Qaeda-linked extremists seized both the hotel and the nearby Cappucino Café.
It broadcast the sound of heavy gunfire and showed images early Saturday of security forces re-taking the 147-room Splendid Hotel in the city's downtown.
"It was horrible because everyone was panicked and was lying down on the floor. There was blood everywhere," said survivor Yannick Sawadogo. "They were shooting at people point blank."
Another survivor, a French architect called Ludovic who was at an outdoor bar near the Cappuccino when the attacks started, said he saw three assailants singling out white victims before running into the Splendid hotel.
Two French nationals were killed during the attacks, a French foreign ministry official said. Most of the victims were foreigners, but their countries of origin have not been released.
There are reports the four assailants, including two women, were among the dead.
Minister of Security and Internal Affairs Simon Compaore said on Saturday that security forces searching nearby hotels to be sure there were no other extremists in hiding.
He said 33 people were wounded during the siege. More than 60 hostages were rescued or were able to flee in the early hours of the ordeal.
One Cappuccino survivor said diners at first mistook the gunfire and explosions for firecrackers before two gunmen, dressed all in black and brandishing AK-47 assault rifles, burst in, firing indiscriminately.
"We heard shots, grenades, detonations. It was echoing and extremely loud. It went on for a long time," the survivor, a Slovenian social anthropologist told Reuters.
"They kept coming back and forth into Cappuccino. You'd think it was over, then they'd come back and shoot more people. They would come back and see if the white people were moving and then they would shoot them again," she said.
Security forces from Burkina Faso and France exchanged heavy gunfire with the militants, who set fire to vehicles outside the hotel.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has taken responsibility for the attack in the former colony of France, according to the SITE Intelligence Group.
While Burkina Faso has largely been spared the violence racked by Islamic extremist groups in Mali, a Romanian national was abducted last April.
Burkina Faso, a largely Muslim country, has been in turmoil since its longtime president was ousted in a popular uprising in late 2014.