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Ivory Coast Beach Attack: Boy Among 16 Victims

                          

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".