NAIROBI, Jan 15, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – A gunfight was underway following a
blast at a hotel and office complex in a leafy Nairobi neighbourhood Tuesday,
an AFP reporter and a witness said.
A blast at the DusitD2 compound, which includes a hotel and several office
buildings housing international companies, was heard from AFP’s offices some
five kilometres (three miles) away.
Simon Crump, who works at one of the offices, said workers had barricaded
themselves inside their offices after “several” explosions.
“We have no idea what is happening. Gunshots are coming from multiple
directions,” he told AFP, adding that the people were terrified.
Police sirens echoed through the city and a helicopter buzzed overhead.
A reporter sent to the scene said the gunmen and security forces were
exchanging gunfire. “There was a bomb, there is a lot of gunfire,” whispered
another man working at the compound, asking not to be named.
It was not immediately clear whether the incident was a robbery or an
attack.
“All police teams have been dispatched to the scene where the incident is.
As at now we are treating it as anything, including the highest attack,”
police spokesman Charles Owino said by phone.
“All police teams including anti-terror officers are at the scene,” he
said.
Flames and plumes of black smoke billowed into the sky from the parking lot
of the compound where several vehicles were on fire, with scores of people
fleeing the compound, some of them lightly injured.
The scenes in the Westlands suburb reminded Nairobians of a bloody
terrorist attack in 2013 when Islamist gunmen stormed the Westgate mall,
killing at least 67 people.
The country faced a spate of attacks after it sent its army into Somalia in
October 2011 to fight the Islamist Shabaab group, affiliated to Al-Qaeda.
On April 2, 2015, another Shabaab attack killed 148 people at the
university in Garissa, eastern Kenya.