DHAKA: Gunmen attacked a restaurant popular with foreigners in the diplomatic quarter of Bangladeshi capital
Dhaka
on Friday, the police said.
Several people, including foreigners, are believed to have been taken hostage inside the
Holey Artisan Bakery
restaurant in the upscale Gulshan area of Dhaka, the police said as the gunbattle with unidentified attackers continues.
Local media reports say about eight attackers, believed to be in their early 20s, entered the bakery, a restaurant popular with foreigners, and opened gunfire around 9:20 PM (local time). Jamuna Television quoted Sumon Reza, a kitchen staff worker at the restaurant who escaped the attack, as saying that the gunmen chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God Is Great) as they launched the attack.
Reza said several armed men entered the restaurant and took the chief chef hostage. "They set off several crude bombs triggering panic," he was quoted as saying by the local media.
The identities of the attackers were not immediately known.
A large number of policemen and Rapid Action Battalion have cordoned off the restaurant.
A witness said from his house located in the area that he could hear gunfire and it "looked quite bad". The
US Embassy in Dhaka said on its Twitter feed there were "reports of shooting and hostage situation".
The attackers hurled bombs and were firing intermittently, injuring some policemen and people.
The foreign ministry has, meanwhile, said that all Indian officials are safe and the Indian high commissioner is closely monitoring the situation.
Bangladesh has seen a series of attacks, mostly using machetes, targeting bloggers, atheists and religious minorities.