At least nine killed in triple suicide bombing in central Mali

At least nine people were killed and more than 60 wounded when a triple suicide bomb attack destroyed about 20 buildings in the central Mali town of Sevare early on Saturday, a spokesperson for the regional governor said.

All of those killed and wounded in Saturday's blasts were civilians, Yacouba Maiga, the spokesperson, said by phone. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Mali is the epicentre of a violent insurgency that took root in its arid north following a Tuareg separatist rebellion in 2012, and Sevare is home to a major Mali military base and troops from the UN mission in Mali.

Since the rebellion, militants with links to al Qaeda and Islamic State have spread to countries in the Sahel region south of the Sahara and more recently to coastal states, seizing territory, killing thousands and uprooting millions in the process.

Images shared on social media showed several buildings including a petrol station destroyed by the blast, as well as injured people being given assistance. The images could not be independently verified.

The attack comes two days after the chief of staff of Mali's interim president, and three others were killed in an ambush.

Earlier on Saturday, the West African country's government said in a statement read on national television that "a terrorist attack" had been stopped by the army in Sevare.

"Three vehicles filled with explosives were destroyed by army drone fire," the statement said, without giving further details on casualties.

Separately on Saturday, the Malian army said in a statement that a military helicopter returning from a mission had crashed in a residential neighbourhood in the capital, Bamako, and that it was assessing the crash site.