UPDATE KUTOKA KENYA WATU 68 WARIPOTIWA KUPOTEZA MAISHA MPAKA SASA
Rescue mission: An image from AFP TV shows military forces taking position inside the shopping mall
Tense: Kenyan paramilitary officers walk towards a small shopping arcade adjacent to the Westgate shopping mall where the hostage situation continues
Armed response: Kenyan troops with machine guns take up position in the mall
Tense: Soldiers from the Kenya Defense Forces walk out of the mall, following the sound of explosions and gunfire
Lock-down: Kenya security personnel walk to their positions outside the shopping mall as the siege continues
Distressing: A woman holds a baby sitting with other injured people who are crying for help after gunmen went on a shooting spree in the Westgate shopping centre
Response: Soldiers take positions outside the shopping centre in Nairobi. Dozens of people have been killed after masked gunmen stormed the mall and held shoppers
Shock: A soldier directs people up stairs inside the Westgate shopping mall after a shootout in Nairobi, Kenya. Gunmen had fired automatic weapons and grenades
Hunting down the terrorists: Soldiers from the Kenya Defence Forces arrive at the Westgate Shopping Centre in the capital Nairobi
Help: Relatives and friends of victims line up to donate blood in Nairobi, following the overwhelming numbers of casualties from the Westgate mall shooting
Ordeal: People come out from hiding under a car next to bodies in a car park as police search for the armed radicals
The security operation is ‘delicate’ because Kenyan forces hoped the hostages were evacuated safely, said Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Lenku.
Siege: People look at the Westgate shopping mall in the distance where hostages are being held for the second day
Escape: This family, who had been trapped inside the shopping centre, support each other as they escape from the scene
Jason Straziuso said: 'I'm 300 meters from mall when blast went off. Eery silence afterward. One short gunfire burst.
'That last big blast far larger than any explosion I'm last 30 hours. No idea what caused it.'
Prime Minister David Cameron said: 'It is an absolutely sickening and despicable attack of appalling brutality.'
As the massacre unfolded witnesses described terrifying scenes in which men, women and children of all ages and nationalities were brutally cut down.
The mall, a popular haunt for rich Kenyans and expats, was dotted with bodies lying in pools of blood.
Some victims were shot dead as they sat in their cars, while others have been left with horrific injuries.
Mr Kenyatta has pledged to hunt down and punish the terrorists behind the brutal attack in upmarket Nairobi, in which a further 150 people were injured.
Horror: Shoppers hurry down an escalator with their hands in the air as they make their way out of the shopping centre to safety
Army: Soldiers were drafted in to help police tackle the gunmen, who are now known to be terrorists from the Somali al-Shabaab organisation, which has links to al-Qaeda
Shootout: Soldiers and armed police fire at the suspected terrorists as they try to wrest back control of the shopping centre
In a national televised address he said that his nephew and his nephew's fiancée, whom he 'knew and loved', were both killed by the radicals.
Somali-based militant group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the outrage at the mall in the affluent Westlands district of the capital.
'The priority is to save as many lives as possible'
Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Lenku
A Foreign Office spokesman said that three British nationals are confirmed dead and that the next of kin of those nationals have been informed.
The Government’s crisis committee (COBR), chaired by Foreign Secretary William Hague, met earlier today to discuss the incident.
The Labour Party conference in Brighton paused for a minute's silence as news of the deaths filtered through, with Ed Miliband among those reflecting.
He said: 'This is an appalling attack which has left three British citizens and many others dead. Our thoughts are with the families of the victims and the others caught up in this dreadful atrocity.
'Those who carried out this attack will be condemned across the globe. The cold-blooded killing of innocent women, children and men is as despicable as it is shocking.'
Desperation: A crowd of people hold their arms out to catch a Kenyan woman as she jumps out from the air vent where she had been hiding from the gunmen
Emergency: A Red Cross assistant helps a child outside who was among those caught in the shooting
Daily Mail
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