The DusitD2 hotel and office park on Riverside Drive in Kenya’s capital city Nairobi was rocked with gunfire and explosives at 3 pm on Tuesday making people flee for safety into streets. Somali militant group al-Shabab claimed responsibility of the terrorist attack.
An officer talking on condition of anonymity said there was no time to count the dead bodies lying on the ground in restaurants.
Kenyan national police chief Joseph Boinnet said the spot has been cordoned off and it is feared the attackers may have taken hostages inside the hotel complex.
TV footage shows smoke coming out from burning cars and the hotel complex surrounded by heavily armed police and ambulances.
The complex has five buildings. One is an upscale hotel while the other holds offices and shops.
The country is repeatedly attacked by al-Shabab group which is based in neighboring Somalia. in 2013 more than sixty people were killed, including four attackers, in an attack on the Westgate mall.
About 150 people were killed in April 2015 when the terrorists group stormed Garissa University in northeastern Kenya.
According to witnesses the attackers entered dormitories and opened fire and executed Christian students after segregating them from Muslim students.
It was a 16-hour standoff and deadliest since 1998 bombing at the US Embassy in which more than 200 people were killed.
Meanwhile, the US Embassy in Nairobi has issued a security alert for its people.
