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**WARNING – GRAPHIC IMAGES**

(Image: TWITTER/@LOPEZDOBE)

Five Europeans and a child, aged five, are reportedly among the dead after the atrocity today.

The six terrorists – who struck at Hotel Etoile de Sud in Grand Bassam, Ivory Coast – have now been killed.

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said officials were "urgently" trying to establish whether any Brits had been caught up in the incident.

Chilling footage has emerged of the Ivory Coast attack, showing shocked holidaymakers fleeing for their lives from the gunmen.

(Image: REUTERS)

Now Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, an African branch of the Islamic terror group, have taken responsibility for the attack.

"Six attackers came onto the beach in Bassam this afternoon," said President Alassane Ouattara, visiting the site.

"We have 14 civilians and two special forces soldiers who were unfortunately killed," he said.

French president Francois Hollande has already confirmed a Frenchman was among the dead, denouncing the atrocity as a “cowardly attack”.

(Image: @lopezdobe/TWITTER)

Bram Posthumus, a journalist based in West Africa who was nearby when the attack begun, described what he saw.

“There was quite a lot of panic in the beach area,” he said. “People were rushing on to the streets and back into the centre of town.”

“A couple of versions were circulating after the shooting, the first was that it was a criminal act – a robbery in a restaurant,” he told Sky News.

“As time went on, it was quite clear a standoff was developing,” he said. “There was something more to it”.

Mr Posthumus said the beach area of Grand Bassam, which is separated from the main town by a bridge, was sealed off by police.

Ivorian television reports that "mopping up operations are ongoing" though no further details of victims have emerged yet.

Terrified eye-witnesses described hearing the terrorists shouting "Allahu Akbar" - meaning God is great - in Arabic as they opened fire.

The gunmen, "heavily armed and wearing balaclavas, fired at guests at the L'Etoile du Sud (Southern Star), a large hotel which was full of expats in the current heatwave", one witness told French media.

Another, Marcel Guy, described how a gunman approached two children and spoke in Arabic. One child knelt and prayed, but the other was shot dead.

(Image: REUTERS)

An eye witness told Connexion Ivoirienne: "They shot at everyone.

"They are going from hotel to hotel."

A further witness said: "The shots took us by surprise and now we are staying holed up."

Some reports suggested up to 10 men were involved in the shooting, but government sources claim six men were responsible.

Terror expert Raffaello Pantucci, of the Royal United Services Institute, said the attack had all the hallmarks of an Al-Qaeda-backed group.

(Image: MICHAEL HOROWITZ / TWITTER)

He said: "I would suspect, given the targeting of western tourists and the nature of the attack with accounts of attackers shouting Allah Akbar, such a shooting would suggest we are seeing something which is similar to others we have seen in the region.

"Like the hotel attack in Mali and in Ouagadougou, where they are basically attacking western hotels, and these attacks are being launched by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and affiliates in the region.

"These are groups that have threatened across this entire region, and in a lot of the capitals in this part of West Africa we have seen an increased threat picture, which is more linked to these Al-Qaeda groups rather than Islamic State, which struck in Tunisia.

"I think there is something different going on here than in Tunisia, and with the overall picture one would suggest this looks a lot like those attacks we have seen recently in other West African capitals.”

The Ivory Coast government has confirmed two hotels were attacked south of the country.

Confessing the killings, Al-Qaeda sickos bragged that "heroes" from its group were able to storm the resort.

But it comes as hotels in nearby Mali and and Burkina Faso have been targeted by Al-Qaeda-linked groups in the past year.

(Image: DS) (Image: @lopezdobe/TWITTER)

Unconfirmed reports claimed that the US ambassador could have been pinpointed in the attack.

It has now emerged a US delegation was in the area, although officials do not believe they were the main target.

The US embassy in Adijan tweeted: "Monitoring the situation in Grand Bassam.

"No evidence that U.S. citizens were targeted nor confirmed reports of any U.S citizens as harmed."

Dozens of people have paid their respects on Twitter twitter and expressed their horror at the barbaric attrocity using the hashtag #PrayForBassam.

In a statement, the Ivory Coast government urged people to avoid Grand Bassam, adding: “We ask people to not panic and keep calm."

Grand Bassam, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is said to be popular with Western tourists.