“My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” Reynders said on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers meeting in the Latvian capital Riga.

Reynders said he believed the dead included a Belgian national and a spokesman for the minister later confirmed that this was the case.

The spokesman gave no further details.

EU foreign affairs head Federica Mogherini said one of the victims worked with the European Union in Mali where the 28-nation bloc runs a mission to assist police and national guard forces.

Mogherini did not give the nationality of the victim in a tweeted message.

At least one gunman entered the nightclub in an area of the Mali capital Bamako which is popular with expatriates and opened fire in the early hours of Saturday, local police said.

“This is a terrorist attack, although we’re waiting for clarification. Provisionally, there are four dead — one French national, a Belgian and two Malians,” a policeman told AFP, adding that the dead included a police officer who had been passing the restaurant.

A source at the Gabriel Toure hospital in Bamako said a third European, whose nationality was not immediately clear, had died on arrival, while eight people were wounded.