Nairobi ‘terror attack’ at Kenyan hotel amid explosions and gunfire

‘What I saw was terrible. It looks like minced meat all over’: Al Shabaab Islamists set off explosions at Kenyan hotel and open fire as survivors run for their lives as police race to scene of terror attack

  • Explosion and gunfire heard at luxury Nairobi complex which includes a hotel
  • Several vehicles burning and people are being rushed and carried from scene
  • Witness  Charles Njenga said bodies looked like minced meat as he fled scene
  • One man came out covered in blood as nearby university was evacuated 

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An upscale complex in Kenya’s capital is under attack, with an explosion and heavy gunfire.

Witnesses and police at the Nairobi complex – which includes a large hotel known as DusitD2, banks and offices – are calling it a terror attack. 

Several vehicles are burning while people are being rushed and carried from the scene. One man came out covered in blood as nearby university students were evacuated.

‘It is terrible. What I have seen is terrible. I have seen a human as I ran out and there is what looks like minced meat all over,’ said witness Charles Njenga, who ran from the scene. 

A woman is carried out of the hotel and office complex on a stretcher where Al Shabaab Islamists let off explosions

Survivors duck down to avoid being shot and cling to the person in front  as they are led out of the complex in single file

Survivors duck down to avoid being shot and cling to the person in front as they are led out of the complex in single file

Several vehicles are burning while people are being rushed and carried from the scene in the Kenyan capital

Several vehicles are burning while people are being rushed and carried from the scene in the Kenyan capital

Witnesses and police at the complex - which includes a large hotel known as DusitD2, banks and offices - are calling it a terror attack

Witnesses and police at the complex – which includes a large hotel known as DusitD2, banks and offices – are calling it a terror attack

Several vehicles are burning while people are being rushed and carried from the scene

Several vehicles are burning while people are being rushed and carried from the scene

‘I have been hiding. My colleagues were running everywhere,’ said another man. He said he hid in an office. ‘I didn’t see an attacker. It was a terrorist attack. I think so.’ 

Gunfire continued several minutes after the first reports. Black smoke rose from the scene.

Four ambulances and a fire truck arrived at the scene as fleeing office workers said colleagues were still huddled under their desks. 

‘I just started hearing gunshots, and then started seeing people running away raising their hands up and some were entering the bank to hide for their lives,’ a woman working in a neighbouring building said. She also heard two explosions, she said.

Nairobi police commander Philip Ndolo had earlier said they had cordoned off the area around Riverside Drive, where the dusitD2 hotel is located, due to a suspected robbery.

But police are not ruling out a militant attack, police spokesman Charles Owino told Citizen Television.

Nairobi police commander Philip Ndolo had earlier said they had cordoned off the area around Riverside Drive, where the dusitD2 hotel is located, due to a suspected robbery. But police are not ruling out a militant attack

Nairobi police commander Philip Ndolo had earlier said they had cordoned off the area around Riverside Drive, where the dusitD2 hotel is located, due to a suspected robbery. But police are not ruling out a militant attack

Cars were seen burning at the scene amid reports of explosions and heavy gunfire

Cars were seen burning at the scene amid reports of explosions and heavy gunfire

‘We have to go for the highest incident that could take place. The highest incident we have is a terror (attack),’ he said. 

‘We are under attack,’ another person in an office inside the complex told Reuters, then hung up. Smoke could be seen rising from the area and a Reuters reporter saw several vehicles on fire near the entrance to the complex.

What appears to be plainclothes security forces are seen inching their way toward the scene, guns in hand. 

Somali Islamist militant group al Shabaab have claimed responsibility for the attack. 

‘We are behind the attack in Nairobi. The operation is going on. We shall give details later,’ said Abdiasis Abu Musab, al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman.  

The attack immediately reminds many Kenyans of the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi in 2013, when al-Shabab extremists burst into the luxury shopping center, hurling grenades and starting a days-long siege that left 67 people dead.

The country faced a spate of attacks after it sent its army into Somalia in October 2011 to fight the Islamist Shabaab group, affiliated to Al-Qaeda.

On April 2, 2015, another Shabaab attack killed 148 people at the university in Garissa, eastern Kenya. 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk