UN peacekeepers saw 27 bodies

United Nations peacekeepers saw some 27 bodies on two separate floors of a luxury hotel in Mali's capital Bamako that was attacked on Friday, a U.N. official told Reuters, citing preliminary information.

The peacekeepers saw 12 corpses in the basement of the hotel and another 15 on the second floor, the official said on condition of anonymity. He added that the U.N. troops were still helping Malian authorities search the hotel.

Eighty hostages held by Islamist gunmen have been freed from the luxury hotel in Mali's capital as government special forces moved floor by floor to clear the building, Mali's state broadcaster and a security source.