The Malian government said yesterday that a recent spate of kidnappings by suspected Al Qaeda-affiliated militants was an attack on the country’s stability.

Three foreigners were abducted in the city of Timbuktu and another killed in what the government condemned as “an attack on the country’s security and stability.”

An armed gang of kidnappers abducted three foreigners and killed a fourth in the centre of the ancient tourist city of Timbuktu in northern Mali Friday, security sources said.

The victim who was shot dead had tried to resist his abduction, according to the sources who did not give the nationality of the hostages.

The kidnappers struck as the four were in a restaurant on the central square of Timbuktu, the sources said.

The latest kidnapping came after two French nationals described as geologists were abducted by an armed gang from their hotel in the eastern village of Hombori near the border with Niger early on Thursday.

At least a dozen French soldiers on a training mission in the region have now joined Mali’s army in the hunt for the pair, according to an AFP journalist in the Hombori region.