BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Witnesses in Mali's northern city of Timbuktu say an armed man killed three young men outside a Christian radio station.

Aldjoumate Cisse, a resident, said Friday a man walked up to the group late Thursday, shot at the ground and then shot and killed the three before fleeing.

Moussa Hama, who also lives in the area, says young adults frequent the radio station.

Bilal Mahamane Traore, an adviser to Timbuktu's mayor, said one of the men was a radio host, the other a local contractor for the U.N. mission and the third a Tuareg who was studying in Morocco. He said extremism was not suspected.

Tuareg separatists signed a peace accord with the government in late June. A French-led military intervention drove extremists out of north Mali, though attacks continue.