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At least 23 people of 18 different nationalities are now known to have died after Islamist militants attacked a luxury hotel in Burkina Faso, the BBC reported.

Al-Qaeda militants attacked the Splendid Hotel in the West African state's capital, Ouagadougou, as well as a cafe and another hotel nearby.

Four of the attackers were killed, two of them reportedly women.

The siege at the Splendid was declared over after a joint operation by local and French security forces.
The Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) militant group has said it carried out the attack.

Bukinabe President Roch Kabore, who arrived at the scene on Saturday morning amid tight security, announced the death toll and the liberation of at least 150 hostages.

The French Ambassador, Gilles Thibault, gave a higher death toll of 27 and denied any women were among the militants killed at the hotel.

In November, an AQIM attack on a hotel in the Malian capital Bamako left 19 people dead.

In another development, two foreign citizens, a doctor and his wife, were kidnapped overnight in northern Burkina Faso near the border with Mali, Burkinabe officials said.