NAIROBI: A huge blast followed by a gun battle rocked the DusitD2 hotel and office complex in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday in an attack claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked Shabaab Islamist group.
A witness said he saw five bodies at the hotel entrance alone. "It is terrible. What I have seen is terrible," said a man who ran from the scene, Charles Njenga.
At least 14 people were believed killed in the first terrorist wave and bomb attack. But all seven Thais employed at the compound, including four on duty at the time of the terrorist attack, reported they were safe. Other casualty reports were being assessed.
The DusitD2 compound includes a 101-room up-scale spa and hotel, restaurant and office buildings housing local and international companies. The blast was heard five kilometres away.
Gunfire continued more than two hours after the first shots were heard at the DusitD2 complex. It was not clear how many attackers took part.
"We are aware that armed criminals are holing up in the hotel, and special forces are now currently flushing them out," said Kenya's national police chief, Joseph Boinnet, describing the assault as a suspected terror attack.
Simon Crump, who works in the complex, said terrified workers barricaded themselves inside their offices after "several" explosions.
"We have no idea what is happening. Gunshots are coming from multiple directions," he said.
He later said that police had evacuated workers from the building, and it was not clear how many were still trapped.
"A lot of people ran when the first few explosions happened, there was a mad rush for the exit," he said.
John Maingi said there had been "a flash of lights and a loud bang" at the Secret Garden restaurant where he works.
"When I peeped outside I saw a human leg which has been cut off. We hid in the room and then some police officers rescued us," he said.
"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.
The Nairobi News filed a brief video report on the attack on its YouTube channel.
The US and UN condemned the attack.
The attack at DusitD2 is the first in Nairobi in five years, when gunmen stormed the city's Westgate shopping mall, killing at least 67 people. The attack and ensuing siege lasted around four days.
That assault was also claimed by Somalia's Shabaab, which have been fighting to overthrow the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu since 2007.
