Explosion in Nairobi Kills 1
An explosion shook downtown Nairobi on Monday morning, killing one person and injuring at least 31 others, officials said.
By TOM ODULA
The cause of the blast was not clear, but police Commissioner Mohamed Hussein Ali said ``it was something that somebody was carrying.''
Police at the scene said that initial investigations indicate that a man got off a minivan taxi and a guard tried to stop him from entering a small restaurant because he was wearing something that looked suspicious. It was after this confrontation that the explosion occurred, said the policemen who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
They said it was not clear whether the man had anything to do with the bombing. They had no other details.
A man who said he witnessed the explosion said the blast struck two men in their 30s who were walking together.
``One of the men, who was carrying a rucksack was lifted off the ground and when he came down, he did not move ... The other man was injured on both legs but when we tried to assist, he refused our help,'' Joshua Kinyazui told The Associated Press. ``The explosion caused papers to scatter all over and police then came and took the injured man away.''
An AP reporter saw a body lying outside a shop where the windows were blown out, with shards of glass strewn on the pavement. The shop was on the ground floor of one of Nairobi's oldest hotels, the Ambassadeur Hotel, which has a largely Kenyan clientele. Part of the hotel's parking area also serves as a terminus for buses and minivan taxies.
The hotel itself was not affected by the blast.
Police were trying to clear the area as hundreds of people gathered around.
``Whatever it was exploded; it was something that somebody was carrying,'' Ali said.
He urged the public to be ``extremely careful'' about speculating on the nature of explosion.
Kariuki Chege, spokesman for Kenyatta National Hospital, told independent television station, NTV, the hospital had received 31 people injured in the blast. Chege told the station that six of them were seriously wounded.
The last known bombing in Nairobi was in 1998, when the U.S. embassies in downtown Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were simultaneously hit, killing 225 people. An East Africa al-Qaida network was blamed for that bombing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6699950,00.html
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By TOM ODULA
The cause of the blast was not clear, but police Commissioner Mohamed Hussein Ali said ``it was something that somebody was carrying.''
Police at the scene said that initial investigations indicate that a man got off a minivan taxi and a guard tried to stop him from entering a small restaurant because he was wearing something that looked suspicious. It was after this confrontation that the explosion occurred, said the policemen who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
They said it was not clear whether the man had anything to do with the bombing. They had no other details.
A man who said he witnessed the explosion said the blast struck two men in their 30s who were walking together.
``One of the men, who was carrying a rucksack was lifted off the ground and when he came down, he did not move ... The other man was injured on both legs but when we tried to assist, he refused our help,'' Joshua Kinyazui told The Associated Press. ``The explosion caused papers to scatter all over and police then came and took the injured man away.''
An AP reporter saw a body lying outside a shop where the windows were blown out, with shards of glass strewn on the pavement. The shop was on the ground floor of one of Nairobi's oldest hotels, the Ambassadeur Hotel, which has a largely Kenyan clientele. Part of the hotel's parking area also serves as a terminus for buses and minivan taxies.
The hotel itself was not affected by the blast.
Police were trying to clear the area as hundreds of people gathered around.
``Whatever it was exploded; it was something that somebody was carrying,'' Ali said.
He urged the public to be ``extremely careful'' about speculating on the nature of explosion.
Kariuki Chege, spokesman for Kenyatta National Hospital, told independent television station, NTV, the hospital had received 31 people injured in the blast. Chege told the station that six of them were seriously wounded.
The last known bombing in Nairobi was in 1998, when the U.S. embassies in downtown Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, were simultaneously hit, killing 225 people. An East Africa al-Qaida network was blamed for that bombing.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6699950,00.html
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benundclaudia - 11. Jun, 12:06