Strasbourg, France - A hotel which was set on fire Saturday by anti-NATO demonstrators in Strasbourg was gutted by the flames, but had been unoccupied before it was attacked, a German news television channel, N-TV, reported.

Earlier television pictures had shown the entire ground floor of the five-storey building on fire. N-TV said the flames then spread.

N-TV said the 78-room hotel had been vacated in advance of the NATO summit which brought US President Barack Obama and other leaders to the city.

The hotel was located close to a downtown bridge which crosses the Rhine River and joins Strasbourg to the city's German suburb, Kehl. (dpa)