Terrorists attacked an upscale hotel complex in Kenya’s capital Tuesday, sending people fleeing in panic as explosions and heavy gunfire reverberated through the neighborhood. A witness reported seeing at least two bodies.
Al-Shabaab – the Somalia-based extremist group that carried out the 2013 Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi that left 67 people dead – claimed responsibility for the assault and said its members were still fighting inside.
Several vehicles burned and people were rushed, some carried, from the scene. At least one was on a stretcher. Some ducked behind cars, screaming. Others appeared to take cover behind fountains and other features in the lush outdoor complex.
The complex in Nairobi’s Westlands neighborhood includes a large hotel known as DusitD2, along with banks and offices.
“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 one man who said he ran from the scene, Charles Njenga.
