Armed groups gathered outside a Maltese-owned hotel in Tripoli on Friday night, as political tensions in the Libyan capital escalated.
Video posted to social media showed armed and uniformed men standing at the entrance to the five-star Corinthia Hotel. More than 20 armed vehicles are believed to have gathered outside the hotel.
Sources told
Times of Malta that the armed group demanded a meeting with council president Mahamed Younes al-Menfi and two other deputies. The Libyan News Observatory reported that the groups also searched cars belonging to al-Menfi and Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush.
A spokesperson for the presidency council confirmed that the building had been raided but claimed that nobody from the council was in the building at the time of the incident.