Kenyan police are fighting to regain control of a hotel and office complex in the capital city after gunmen opened fire inside the complex on Tuesday.
According to CNN, at least four are believed to be dead in what is being described as a “suspected terror attack” in Nairobi, with the death toll expected to rise.
The New York Times reports that one person was confirmed to be dead and another 15 reported wounded, although the KTN News Kenya service reported at least five dead, and others reporting at least seven.
The assailants began their attack at a bank inside the complex, with an explosion that targeted three vehicles according to
CNN. That explosion was followed by a suicide explosion in the hotel lobby which left several guests injured.
The Somali Islamist extremist group, Al-Shabaab, which has ties to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the network.
The report notes that the attackers are still in the complex, sequestered on one floor of the DusitD2 hotel, with special forces trying to “flush them out”, Joseph Boinnet, inspector general of Kenya’s national police service said.
“Owing to the swift and targeted response of the security services, the situation has been largely contained and six out of the seven floors of the Dusit hotel have been secured,” Boinnet said at an evening news conference.
It is not clear how many attackers are there.
According to the
Times, the attack was mounted just before a court was expected to give a verdict in the trial of three men who are accused of assisting the extremist group in the 2014 attack on the Westgate mall in Nairobi, where 67 people were killed. Three years ago on this day, the group also attacked a Kenyan military base in Somalia, resulting in the death of 140 soldiers.
