Nairobi attack: Terror group al-Shabaab claims responsibility for suicide bombing at Kenyan hotel complex as reports say at least five killed

Police say they have detonated a car at the upmarket Nairobi hotel complex currently thought to be under siege by Islamist militants.

Officers said had explosives inside had been planted inside. The blast sent people at the scene ducking and screaming.

Police have also moved away from other vehicles they suspect of having explosives, as armed units continue to sweep the area.

The incident is taking place in the Westlands neighbourhood, considered to be one of the most secure complexes in the city.

Kenya’s National Police Service has announced via Twitter specialist units have been sent to the scene of the ongoing attack at a hotel complex in Nairobi to “engage” with the attackers.

Islamist militant group al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the incident through a spokesman.

Several eyewitnesses have reported a number of casualties at the scene, but Kenyan officials have so far released no details.

Breaking: One dead, four injured in Nairobi attack

Hospital staff have said at least one person has been killed in the attack on a hotel complex in Kenya.

One of five patients brought to MP Shah Hospital had died, while the remaining four were being treated, said Toseef Din, the facility's chief operating officer.

The Red Cross said four hospitals had received casualties.

Hotel hit day after Westgate Mall attack ruling 

A soldier takes cover during the Nairobi hotel assault (Reuters)The attack on a hotel complex in Kenya’s capital comes a day after a magistrates court ruled that three men must stand trial on charges they were involved in the 2013 siege on a Nairobi shopping mall.

The magistrate said Monday he was satisfied with prosecutors’ evidence linking the three suspects to the days-long assault on Westgate Mall, in which 67 people were killed. A fourth suspect was freed for lack of evidence.

The Somalia-based Islamic extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for that attack, as it has for the ongoing incident.

The hotel complex which is currently under attack is just a short distance from Westgate Mall.

‘Gunmen may still be in building’

Kenya police chief Joseph Boinnet has said there may still be armed attackers inside the hotel building where at least one person has been killed on Tuesday.

"A group of unknown armed assailants attacked the Dusit Complex in what we suspect could be a terror attack," he said.

Mr Boinnet also announced during a short briefing with reporters that the police operation to bring the siege to an end was ongoing.

Expectant mother among injured

Survivors at the scene of the hotel attack in Nairobi (AP)An expectant mother is among those who have been injured during an attack on an upmarket hotel in Nairobi, Kenyan television station NTV reported.

The station said the woman was among nine people taken to the city’s Avenue Hospital as a result of the attack.

One of the victims is thought to be in a critical condition, the channel said, while another was treated for minor injuries before being discharged.

The hospital is appealing for people in the area who can safely travel to donate blood, while off-duty staff have been called into work.

Several other hospitals have also accepted casualties, including MP Shah Hospital, where a senior official has announced at least one person has died.

One man who witnessed the attack said he saw armed men dressed in green clothing carrying bullets as he tried to escape a building on the complex.

“They were not normal people, there were three people, they had green trousers, green tops and black bullets, they were armed,” he said.

“I saw them and then I turned back through the toilets I called 999, the officers came and they got me from that place.”

The man added he had seen two bodies as he was being rescued from the scene by police officers.

Police officer – ‘It is true people are dead’

A Kenyan police officer, who was among the first on the scene of the attack on an upscale hotel complex, says he and his colleagues have seen the bodies of multiple victims at the scene.

“There was no time to count the dead but it is true that there are people who are dead,” he told AP.

The officer says some bodies were in restaurants downstairs and that colleagues saw others in offices upstairs.

The officer says blood and glass are all over and that gunfire continues. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press.

Duale Gelle Haf, the president of Somalia's Galmudug region, was at the hotel at the centre of today's attack but escaped safely, according to reports.

The BBC's monitoring service cited a report by Somali Radio Dalsan.

Via Reuters, a bit more background on the area that was apparently attacked today.

According to its website, 14 Riverside is home to the local offices of international firms including Dow Chemical and SAP, Colgate Palmolive, Reckitt Benckiser and Pernod Ricard, as well as the dusitD2 hotel, part of the Thai hotel group Dusit Thani.

SAP said all its staff were safe.

The Australia embassy is across the road from the complex. Kenya is an expatriate hub for diplomats, aid workers, businessmen and others operating around east Africa.