TheCable

Scores of people were injured on Tuesday when gunmen suspected to be al-Shabab militants attacked Dusit hotel in Nairobi, Kenya.

The militants were said to have attacked the hotel around 3pm, shooting their way into the complex. After the invasion, they threw bombs at vehicles in the car park.

Some occupants were injured in course of the gunfire and blasts, as they were taken out of the building by the policemen.

Al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We are behind the attack in Nairobi. The operation is going on,” Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group’s spokesperson, said.

Ferdinand Omondi, a police officer, told the BBC that things were not good as people were dying.

“Armed criminals are holding up in the hotel and specialist forces are currently flushing them out,” Joseph Boinnet, Kenya police chief told reporters.

“I just started hearing gunshots, and then started seeing people running away raising their hands up and some were entering the bank to hide for their lives,” an eyewitness told reporters.

In 2013, al Shabaab killed dozens of people in a shopping centre in the country and nearly 150 students at a Kenya university in 2015.