Scenes of Panic
Local broadcasters including Nation TV yesterday showed images of people fleeing the mall under the protection of armed security officers, while some clutched children and broke down in tears. Some of the injured were carried out by other survivors or pushed in shopping carts to waiting ambulances and dead bodies were loaded onto a pickup truck. Live footage from outside the mall today displayed Kenyan police and army officials standing guard and cordoning off surrounding streets.
A woman who escaped from the building at about 9:30 a.m. today told reporters at the scene that when the attack began she dropped to the floor in Nakumatt.
“I was all alone. Bullets were running over my head,” she said. Hours later, she crawled into an office and locked the door, where she stayed overnight until police allowed her safe passage from the building.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke to Kenyatta and expressed his concern and offered his solidarity as the Kenyan authorities dealt with the incident.
“The secretary-general is following closely and with alarm the attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi,” according to a statement published on the organization’s website.
The U.K. government is keeping “in close touch with Kenyan authorities about the attack,” British Foreign SecretaryWilliam Hague said on his official Twitter account. “Appalled by the attack and my thoughts are with everyone affected by it,” he said.
Article Appeared @http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-21/kenya-shopping-mall-attack-leaves-at-least-39-people-dead.html