Eleven people have died in a gun battle inside a Nairobi shopping centre, says Kenya’s internal security minister.
Mutea Iringo said the government was “now fully in charge” of a “very serious situation” and would not relent in the “war against armed criminals”.
Eyewitnesses said armed men in black, their heads covered in scarves, entered the Westgate shopping centre on Saturday afternoon.
The Somali militant group al-Shabab had threatened to strike the centre.
Al-Shabab has carried out a string of attacks in Kenya since 2011, when Kenyan troops moved into southern Somalia to fight the militants there.
No group has said it carried out Saturday’s attack.
The attackers entered the Westgate centre at about 12:00 local time (09:00 GMT), throwing grenades and firing automatic weapons.
Dozens of shoppers fled, many were trapped inside. Some reports spoke of hostages but this is unconfirmed.
The Kenyan Red Cross earlier said at least 20 people had died.
Eyewitnesses told the AFP news agency the gunmen were speaking Arabic or Somali.
Other witnesses told news agencies the Muslims were told to leave and that non-Muslims would be targeted.
“They were wearing bullet proof vests and they had weapons, and they came and said: ‘If you are Muslim, stand up. We’ve come to rescue you,” said Elijah Lamau, who was in the shopping centre.
He said the Muslims left with their hands up, and then the gunmen shot two people.
Arjen Westra, who was drinking coffee at the time of the attack, told the BBC he thought the cafe he was in was being targeted by the gunmen.
“I could hear the gunfire moving towards the main entrance of the shopping mall, so some people ran out of our cafe in a kind of panic, and quite a number just fell down as flat as possible on the ground.”
A senior police officer originally said it was an attempted robbery but later called it a possible terrorist attack.
Mr Iringo said special forces were now at the shopping centre, “evacuating civilians and searching for the criminals”.
Nairobi police chief Benson Kibue initially said the gunmen had been trying to rob a shop, but later called it “a terrorist attack”. – BBC News
