Al-Shabaab claims responsibility for attack on upmarket complex in Nairobi Islamists storm Kenyan hotel
Gunmen blasted their way into a hotel and office complex in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Tuesday, sending workers fleeing for their lives as others cowered under their desks from an attack claimed by Somali Islamists al-Shabaab.
At least one person was killed and eight wounded, hospital officials said.
“The main door of the hotel was blown open and there was a human arm in the street severed from the shoulder,” Serge Medic, the Swiss owner of a security company, said.
He ran to the scene at the upscale 14 Riverside Drive complex to help civilians when he heard of the attack from his taxi driver.
Medic, who was armed, entered the building with a policeman and two soldiers, he said, but they came under fire and retreated.
An unexploded grenade lay in the lobby, he said.
“One man said he saw two armed men with scarves on their head and bandoliers of bullets,” Medic said, as gunfire echoed in the background, more than two hours after the attack began.
A woman shot in the leg was carried out and three men emerged covered in blood.
Some office workers climbed out of windows.
Many said they had had to leave colleagues behind, still huddled under their desks.
“There’s a grenade in the bathroom,” one officer yelled as police rushed out from one building.
“We heard a loud bang from something that was thrown inside.
“Then I saw shattered glass,” Geoffrey Otieno, who works at a beauty salon in the complex, said. “We hid until we were rescued.”
Kenya has often been targeted by al-Shabaab, which killed dozens of people in a shopping centre in 2013 and nearly 150 students at a university in 2015.
“We are behind the attack in Nairobi. The operation is going on,” Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s military operations spokesperson, said.
According to its website, 14 Riverside is home to the local offices of international companies including BASF, Colgate Palmolive, Reckitt Benckiser, Pernod Ricard, Dow Chemical and SAP, as well as the dusitD2 hotel, part of the Thai hotel group Dusit Thani. –