Death toll rises to 39 in Kenya mall attack

Thirty-nine people were killed and 150 wounded in an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall, Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta said in a televised address to the nation.

He said Kenya had \"overcome terrorist attacks before, and we will defeat them again,\" and told the nation he had also \"personally lost family members in the Westgate attack\".

\"Our security forces are in the process of neutralising the attackers and securing the mall,\" he said, as security operations went on late into the night.

Somalia's Al Qaeda-linked Shebab group said its fighters were behind the attack.

\"They want to cause fear and despondency in our country, but we will not be cowed,\" Kenyatta said, adding:
\"Terrorism is a philosophy of cowards.\"

\"I ask God to give you comfort. My govement will provide the support needed in the days to come,\" he said.

President Kenyatta's address came hours after masked gunmen stormed the packed upmarket shopping mall in Nairobi.  The rebels said the caage was in direct retaliation for Kenya's military intervention in Somalia, where African Union troops are battling the Islamists.

\"The Mujahideen entered #Westgate Mall today at around noon and are still inside the mall, fighting the #Kenyan Kuffar (infidels) inside their own turf,\" the group said on Twitter.

The Shebab tweet said the group's waings over Kenya's military presence in Somalia had been ignored. Shebab \"on numerous occasions waed the Kenyan govement that failure to remove its forces from Somalia would have severe consequences,\" it said.

Armed police pictured during the siege at Westgate Mall in Nairobi.  Picture: AP

\"The Kenyan govement, however, tued a deaf ear to our repeated waings and continued to massacre innocent Muslims in Somalia #Westgate,\" the group tweeted via its @HSM_Press account. \"The attack at #WestgateMall is just a very tiny fraction of what Muslims in Somalia experience at the hands of Kenyan invaders,\" it said.

Gunmen told Muslims to leave

Another al-Shabab tweet claimed that its fighters had killed 100 people in the attack, but the Red Cross has said 30 people have been confirmed killed and 60 wounded. Kenyan President Kenyatta said 39 people had died in the attack and 150 had been wounded.

Kenyan forces entered Somalia two years ago to fight the Shebab, and remain in the country as part of an African Union force that is supporting Somalia's inteationally backed govement.

A security source said police and soldiers had finally \"pinned down\" the gunmen after hours of fierce gunbattles and painstaking evacuations, with police going shop to shop to secure the Westgate shopping mall.

\"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,\" the source told AFP at the scene.

The gunmen told hostages that non-Muslims would be targeted, said Elijah Kamau, who was at the mall at the time of the midday attack.

\"The gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave. They were safe, and non-Muslims would be targeted,'' he said.

A Kenyan woman is helped to safety after masked gunmen stormed an upmarket mall in Nairobi.

Jay Patel, who sought cover on an upper floor in the mall when shooting began, said that when he looked out of a window onto the upper parking deck of the mall he saw the gunmen with a group of people. Mr Patel said that as the attackers were talking, some of the people stood up and left and the others were shot.

Two groups of army special forces troops had moved inside as the stand-off stretched into its ninth hour. Police and military surrounded the huge complex as helicopters buzzed overhead. An Associated Press reporter said he saw a wounded Kenyan soldier put into an ambulance at nightfall, an indication, perhaps, of a final shoot-out inside.

Terrified shoppers huddled in back hallways and hoped the militant gunmen lobbing grenades and firing assault rifles inside the mall would not find them. When the coast was thought to be clear, crying mothers clutching small children and blood-splattered men sprinted out of the four-story shopping centre.

Witnesses said at least five gunmen - including at least one woman - first attacked an outdoor cafe at Nairobi's Westgate Mall, a shiny, new shopping center that hosts Nike, Adidas and Bose stores. The mall's ownership is Israeli, and security experts have long said the structure made an attractive terrorist target.

An injured man talks on the phone as he is rushed into the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi. Picture: AFP

The attack began shortly after noon with bursts of gunfire and grenades. Shoppers - expatriates and rich Kenyans - fled in any direction that might be safe: into back coers of stores, back service hallways and bank vaults. Over the next several hours, pockets of people poured out of the mall as undercover police moved in. Some of the wounded were being transported in shopping carts.

\"We started by hearing gunshots downstairs and outside. Later we heard them come inside. We took cover. Then we saw two gunmen wearing black turbans. I saw them shoot,'' said Patrick Kuria, an employee at Artcaffe, the restaurant with shady outdoor seating.

Frank Mugungu, an off-duty army sergeant major, said he saw four male attackers and one female attacker. \"One was Somali. The others were black,'' he said.

Senior police sources described the attackers as a well-organised \"terror gang\" numbering around 10. The mall, popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates and part Israeli-owned, was packed with around 1000 shoppers when it was besieged at midday.

Shoppers flee the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, after gunmen told Muslims to leave and that non-Muslims would be targeted. Picture: AP

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.

'Senseless act of violence'

An eyewitness told AFP that he heard the gunmen speaking Arabic or Somali and saw the group executing shoppers, in what was the worst attack in Nairobi since an al-Qaida 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.

An injured man, rumoured to be a suspect, is driven away in an ambulance with police escorts. Somalia's militant Islamist group al-Shabab said the attack was retribution for Kenyan forces' 2011 push into Somalia. Picture: AFP

Americans were reportedly among those injured, the United States said as it condemned the \"senseless act of violence\".

\"We have reports of American citizens injured in the attack, and the US embassy is actively reaching out to provide assistance,\" US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said without elaborating, citing privacy conces.

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 patte of the attack and the way they were speaking to their targets clearly point to a well-planned attack by a terror gang.\"

Civilians who had been hiding inside during the gun battle manage to flee from the Westgate Mall in Nairobi. Picture: AP

Somalia's president - the leader of a country familiar with terrorist attacks - said his country knows ``only too well the human costs of violence like this'' as he extended prayers to those in Kenya.

\"These heartless acts against defenceless civilians, including innocent children, are beyond the pale and cannot be tolerated. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Kenya in its time of grief for these lives lost and the many injured,'' President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said.

'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\".

A wounded woman is helped to safety after masked gunmen stormed an upmarket mall, throwing grenades and opening fire. Picture: AFP

\"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 of all races 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.

A woman who had been hiding during the gun battle runs for cover after armed police, seen behind, enter the Westgate Mall. Picture: AP

An eyewitness who survived the assault 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.

Rob Vandijk, who works at the Dutch embassy, said he was eating at a restaurant inside the mall when attackers lobbed hand grenades inside the building.

He said gunfire then burst out and people screamed as they dropped to the ground.

People run to safety during the midday attack. Somalia's al-Qaida-inspired al-Shebab rebels claimed responsibility for the attack. Picture: AFP

It appears the attack began at the outdoor seating area of Artcaffe at the front of the mall, witnesses said.

Patrick Kuria, an employee at Artcaffe, said: \"We started by hearing gunshots downstairs and outside. Later we heard them come inside. We took cover. Then we saw two gunmen wearing black turbans. I saw them shoot.\"

Vehicles riddled with bullet holes were left abandoned in front of the mall as the Red Cross appealed for blood donations and police instructed Nairobi residents to stay away.

The four-storey mall, which has several Israeli-owned businesses, is a hub for Nairobi-based Westeers and one of the foremost symbols of Kenya's affluent classes. It opened in 2007 and has long been considered a potential terror target.

A rescued hostage collapses on the ground after being freed by police. Witnesses said the gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave and that non-Muslims would be targeted. Picture: AP

The mall 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.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is following the attack \"closely and with alarm\", a statement from his office said. The United Nations secretary-general's office said Mr Ban has spoken with President Kenyatta and expressed his conce. British Prime Minister David Cameron also called Kenyatta and offered assistance.

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.\"

The gunmen carried AK-47s and wore vests with hand grenades on them, said Manish Turohit, 18, who hid in a parking garage for two hours.

\"They just came in and threw a grenade. We were running and they opened fire. They were shouting and firing,'' he said after marching out of the mall in a line of 15 people who all held their hands in the air.

A local hospital was overwhelmed with the number of wounded being brought in hours after the attack, so they had to divert them to a second facility. Dozens of people were wounded. Officials said Kenyans tued out in droves to donate blood.

Kenyan authorities said they have thwarted other large-scale attacks targeting public spaces. Kenyan police said in September 2012 they disrupted a major terrorist attack in its final stages of planning, arresting two people with explosive devices and a cache of weapons and ammunition.

Anti-terror Police Unit boss Boniface Mwaniki said vests found were similar to those used in attacks that killed 76 people in Uganda who gathered to watch the soccer World Cup finals on TV in July 2010. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for those bombings, saying the attack was in retaliation for Uganda's participation in the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia.