Thirty killed in Nairobi
mall ‘terror’ attack,
Several hostages taken
Masked attackers stormed a packed
upmarket shopping mall in Nairobi
on Saturday, spraying gunfire and
killing 30 people and wounding
dozens more before holing
themselves up in the complex.
The gunmen were “pinned down”
after hours of painstaking
evacuations, with police going shop
to shop to secure the Westgate
shopping mall, a security source told
AFP.
“
The attackers have been isolated
and are pinned down in an area on
one of the floors. The rest of the
mall seems to be secure,” a security
source told AFP at the scene.
Senior police sources said they
believed a well-organised “terror
gang” numbering around 10 was
behind the assault on the shopping
centre, which was packed with
around 1,000 shoppers when it was
besieged at midday.
An eyewitness told AFP that he
heard the gunmen speaking Arabic
or Somali and saw the group
executing shoppers, in what
appeared to be the worst attack in
Nairobi since an Al-Qaeda bombing
at the US embassy killed more than
200 in 1998.
“The death toll is now standing at
30. This includes those who have
died at the scene and at the
hospital,” a senior police official told
reporters. The Red Cross confirmed
the figure and said another 60 had
been wounded in the attack.
The Kenyan government, which has
troops battling Islamist Shebab
insurgents in neighbouring Somalia,
said it was too early to say who was
responsible.
“Investigations have begun to find
out the perpetrators of this crime. I
urge Kenyans not to speculate,”
Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku
said in a statement.
Police at the scene said a suspect
wounded in the firefight had been
detained and taken to hospital
under armed guard.
“We have reports there were up to
10 or so attackers and they
appeared to be wearing a similar
outfit, and others covered their
faces,” a police official said. “The
pattern of the attack and the way
they were speaking to their targets
clearly point to a well-planned attack
by a terror gang.”
Earlier a police source said it had
been confirmed that the attackers
were holding at least seven
hostages. As darkness fell over
Nairobi, their fate was unclear.
Kenyan troops could be seen
moving around and inside the
shopping centre while special forces
had joined the operation.
An AFP reporter said she saw at least
20 people rescued from a toy shop.
Dozens of wounded, some of them
bleeding children, were taken away
from the mall on stretchers.
‘I saw people being executed’
A shop manager who managed to
escape said at one point “it seemed
that the shooters had taken control
of all the mall”.
“They spoke something that seemed
like Arabic or Somali,” said a man
who escaped the mall and gave his
name only as Jay. “I saw people
being executed after being asked to
say something.”
Shocked people — black, white and
Indian — could be seen running
away from the Westgate centre
clutching children while others
crawled along walls to avoid stray
bullets.
Kenneth
Kerich, who was shopping when the
attack happened, described scenes
of panic.
“I suddenly heard gunshots and saw
everyone running around so we lied
down. I saw two people who were
lying down and bleeding, I think they
were hit by bullets,” he said.
“Initially we thought it is police
fighting thugs. But we could not
leave until when officers walked in,
shot in the air and told us to get
out.”
An eyewitness who survived the
assault by gunmen said he saw the
body of a child being wheeled out of
the mall.
“The gunmen tried to fire at my
head but missed. At least 50 people
were shot. There are definitely many
casualties,” mall employee Sudjar
Singh told AFP.
“I saw a young boy carried out on a
shopping cart, it looked like he was
about 5 or 6. It looked like he was
gone, he was not moving or making
any noise.”
Vehicles riddled with bullet holes
were left abandoned in front of the
mall as the Red Cross appealed for
blood donations and police
instructed residents of the
Westlands neighbourhood to stay
away.
The four-storey mall, which has
several Israeli-owned businesses, is
a hub for Nairobi-based Westerners
and one of the foremost symbols of
Kenya’s affluent classes. It has long
been considered a potential terror
target. It opened in 2007 and has
restaurants, cafes, banks, a large
supermarket and a cinema.
It is popular with the large
expatriate community living in the
residential neighbourhoods around
it, including with foreign staff from
the United Nations, which has its
third largest global centre nearby.
Security agencies have regularly
included the Westgate shopping
centre on lists of sites they feared
could be targeted by Al Qaeda-linked
groups.
The Somali insurgents from the
Shebab group have repeatedly
threatened to strike at the heart of
Kenya in retaliation for Nairobi’s
military involvement alongside the
government they are trying to
overthrow.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
is following the attack “closely and
with alarm”, a statement from his
office said.
British Foreign Secretary William
Hague said on Twitter that his
country was “in close touch with
Kenyan authorities about the attack
in Nairobi. Our urgent priority is the
welfare of UK nationals.”


source- www.nigerianeye.com/2013/09/gunmen-storm-nairobi-shopping-mall.html?m=1