Terror attack: They are going from hotel to hotel shooting tourists

Safety, quality and sanitary conditions were important for tourists selecting the Etoile du Sud Hotel in the heart of Grand Bassam. This is according to Facebook posts evaluating this hotel.

Today, this resort has become the latest center of terror and a war against tourism when at least twelve people died in a senseless attack by Islamic fanatics. The U.S. embassy could not confirm if Americans were among the victims.

However, the attack was not isolated to this hotel.

“They shot at everyone,” a witness told Connexion Ivoirienne. “They are going from hotel to hotel.”

The following graphic images of the dead have been posted to social media.

Security services from the National Police and French armed forces are now on the site and evacuating the beach.

French media quote eyewitnesses as saying the shooting began at the Etoile du Sud Hotel. There have been reports of at least twelve casualties. Among the dead are European tourists.

A witness quoted by RFI said that at least two gunmen ‘armed with machine guns’ opened fire on guests and staff near a number of hotels popular with western tourists in Grand Bassam.

Other reports suggest as many as ten gunmen may have been involved.

Grand-Bassam is a town in south-eastern Ivory Coast, lying 25 miles east of the capital city Abidjan. It was the French colonial capital city from 1893 to 1896, when the administration was transferred to Bingerville after a bout of yellow fever.

The Etoile du Sud is in the heart of Grand Bassam, on the border to the sea, in the night you hear the force of the nature.