About 30 people were killed and 85 wounded in terrorist attacks on the French embassy and cultural centre in Burkina Faso and the west African country’s army headquarters on Friday.

Most of the dead were Burkina Faso soldiers, killed as they defended the targets in the capital, Ouagadougou, supported by French forces. There were no French casualties, security sources in Paris said.

It was not immediately clear how many gunmen took part in what are believed to have been coordinated strikes described by Edouard Philippe, the French prime minister, as "a terrorist attack". At least six assailants are known to have been killed.

The bloodshed began when five of the gunmen jumped out of a pickup truck in the city centre, shouted “Allahu Akhbar” (‘God is greatest’ in Arabic), set fire to the truck and opened fire on passers-by. They then ran towards the French embassy, according to witnesses who saw the attack from the state television offices facing the embassy.

Around the same time, at least one explosion occurred near the army headquarters and the French cultural centre, located about half a mile from the embassy.