Nairobi attack: Terrorists ‘eliminated’ after 14 killed in Kenya, as survivors reveal stories of escape

Public urged to ‘go back to work without fear’ after special forces bring deadly siege to close

The siege at a luxury hotel in Nairobi that left 14 people dead has ended after militants who launched an attack on the complex were “eliminated”, Kenya’s president said.

Gunmen stormed the DusitD2 hotel during a suspected terror attack in the Westlands district of the city on Tuesday afternoon, setting off explosions and shooting people.

The Foreign Office has announced a British citizen is among the dead. An American man is so far thought to be the only other foreign national known to have died.

The British national killed in an attack in Nairobi has been named as Luke Potter by his employer, the international development charity Gatsby.

Mr Potter had been the organisation’s Africa programmes director for the past 10 years.

“We are deeply shocked and saddened to confirm that Luke Potter, our Africa programmes director, was killed in the recent security incident in Nairobi,” the charity said in a statement.

“Luke had devoted the past ten years of his career to helping some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world. He had worked with us for three and a half years, carrying out assignments across East Africa.”

Special forces had been sent to flush out the insurgents holed up inside the building, with officials announcing the area had been secured several hours later.

The Islamist militant group al-Shabaab has said its fighters were responsible for the attack.

Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta said on Wednesday morning the security operation at the complex was over and all “terrorists” involved had been killed.

“The security operation at dusit complex is over, and all the terrorists eliminated,” he said. “As of this moment, we can confirm that 14 innocent lives were lost through the hands of these murderous terrorists.”

The president did not say Wednesday how many attackers were involved in the incident, but urged Kenyans to “go back to work without fear”.

Mr Kenyatta announced 14 civilians had been killed, contradicting earlier reports the death toll stood at 15, while more than 700 others had been safely evacuated during the attack.

At least two groups of people had remained trapped inside the hotel complex early on Wednesday, with gunfire still ringing out at the scene.

Kenya’s national police chief, Joseph Boinnet, said the coordinated attack on the hotel began with an explosion in a car park outside a bank followed by a suicide bomber inside the hotel lobby.

Streams of people were initially seen running from the complex, some injured. Others were trapped inside buildings, forced to wait several hours for medical treatment or evacuation.

CCTV footage circulated in local media purported to show at least four gunmen entering to complex. Witnesses described seeing armed men dressed in green clothing draped in bandoliers of bullets.

Many of those killed are thought to have been sitting at a restaurant in the complex when the gunfire broke out.

Enoch Kibet, who works as a cleaner for the business, said she escaped by crawling out of a gate in the basement of the building after hearing an explosion.

“We were changing our shifts and that is when I heard a loud blast and people were screaming,” she said. “I couldn't believe I was alive. The blast was so loud and shook the whole complex.”

Militants from al-Shabaab, a Somalia-based group aligned to al-Qaeda, asserted the attack had killed 47 people in a release through its news agency, but gave no further details.

The organisation is also thought to have been behind the siege on the Westgate shopping mall, around a mile from the DusitD2 complex, which killed 67 people across several days in 2013.

Additional reporting by agencies