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Police were going shop-to-shop to evacuate terrified people from the Westgate shopping mall, which is popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates and generally packed on weekends/MUTHONI NJUKI

Kenya

Gunmen kill 20, take hostages in Nairobi mall assault

“I saw a young boy carried out on a shopping cart, it looked like he was about five or six. It looked like he was gone, he was not moving or making any noise.”

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

“Our officers are on the ground carrying out an evacuation of those inside as they search for the attackers who are said to be inside,” Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo said.

“We have managed to evacuate some people to safety. We urge Kenyans to avoid the area as we pursue the thugs,” Kenya’s interior ministry said on Twitter.

The Westgate mall, which opened in 2007, has restaurants, cafes, banks, a large supermarket and a cinema that attract thousands of people every day and have made it a Nairobi landmark.

It 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.

The Somali insurgents from the Shabaab group have repeatedly threatened to strike at the heart of Kenya in retaliation for Nairobi’s military involvement alongside the government they are trying to overthrow.

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