The national parks authority said on Friday the attack took place on Wednesday and while parks officials did not elaborate on its circumstances, Tanzanian television said the bandits robbed several tourists.

"The tourist is from the Netherlands. He was killed the day before yesterday in a tented camp which is out of the Serengeti national park," Pascal Shelutete, a spokesman for the Tanzania national parks authority, told AFP.

"He was killed along with the assistant manager of the lodge who is a local Tanzanian," he added.

Tourism is a major source of foreign currencies for the eastern African country.

The national resources and interior ministers visited the site of the attack and extended their condolences to the tourist's widow, state television reported.

The Serengeti is known as the starting of the great migration, one of nature's most spectacular wonders which sees hundreds of thousands of wildebeest flock across to Kenya's Maasai Mara park every year.