Mombasa attacks kill at least three people

No one has claimed responsibility for the two blasts at a bus station and luxury hotel

An injured girl receives medical treatment at the Coast general hospital in Mombasa, after sustaining injuries following an explosion in the busy Mwembe Tayari area of the city centre (AFP/Getty)

At least three people have been killed in two attacks at a bus station and a luxury hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, on Saturday.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Kenya has blamed the al-Qa’ida-linked Somali group al Shabaab for similar attacks.

The militant group carried out the attack on the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last September, which killed at least 67 people; there have been a string of further incidents since then.

“What happened is a grenade was thrown at passengers,” Mombasa county commissioner Nelson Marwa told journalists.

“The attackers were riding on a motor bike, and lobbed the grenade at the crowd of people at the bus terminus.”

More than 20 people were wounded.

Guards at the seaside Reef Hotel told Reuters they had prevented attackers from gaining entry, but the suspects threw a bag with an explosive device into the compound. A roof of one building was ripped off by the blast and part of its wall collapsed.

At the bus station, victims were sprawled in a pool of blood and the road was littered with shattered glass from a bus.

“I didn't see who threw the object, but I heard a loud explosion before I fell to the ground. I then felt my legs go numb,” Halima Sidi, 26, who works at a local supermarket, told Reuters at a hospital as nurses bandaged her wounded legs.

The Kenyan coast's large Muslim minority, many of whom feel marginalized by the government, has been a fertile recruitment ground for Islamist militant networks.

Kenya sent soldiers into Somalia in 2011 to try to drive out al Shabaab, which it sees as a threat to its own borders and security.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has said the tourism sector was “on its knees” due to attacks by the militants who want Kenyan troops out of Somalia. Kenyatta has rejected their demands.

Mombasa is a draw for tourists as well as a major port for the east African region, situated on the Indian Ocean coastline.

Additional reporting by Reuters