Hotel and office complex in Nairobi under attack, police and witnesses say. Somalia-based militant group Al Shabab claims responsibility, says fighters still inside complex.

Cars are seen on fire at the scene of explosions and gunshots in Nairobi, Kenya on January 15, 2019.
Cars are seen on fire at the scene of explosions and gunshots in Nairobi, Kenya on January 15, 2019.
(Reuters)
A large fire and sustained gunfire sent workers fleeing for their lives at an upscale hotel and office complex in the Kenyan capital on Tuesday afternoon, witnesses said. One man came out covered in blood as nearby university students were evacuated. "I just started hearing gunshots, and then started seeing people running away raising their hands up and some were entering the bank to hide for their lives," a woman working in a neighbouring building said. She also heard two explosions, she said.
"We are under attack," another person in an office inside the complex told Reuters news agency, then hung up.
Witnesses and police at the scene called it a terror attack.
Somali militant group Al Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack, their spokesman told Reuters.
"We are behind the attack in Nairobi. The operation is going on. We shall give details later," said Abdiasis Abu Musab, the group's military operations spokesman.

No claim for responsibility Three cars were ablaze by the entrance and a picture of the hotel grounds on Twitter showed what appeared to be a human a leg lying on the path.
It was not immediately clear who was behind the incident. 
Nairobi suffers from violent robberies but has also been targeted by Somali militants, who killed dozens of people in a shopping centre in 2013 and nearly 150 students at a university in 2015.
Nairobi police commander Philip Ndolo said they had cordoned off the area around Riverside Drive, where the dusitD2 hotel is located, due to a suspected robbery.
But police are not ruling out a militant attack, police spokesman Charles Owino told Citizen Television. Anti-terrorism unit rushed to site Owino said that "we have sent officers to the scene, including from the anti-terrorism unit, but so far we have no more information."
Ambulances and security forces were rushed to the scene, and what appeared to be plainclothes security forces were seen inching their way toward the scene.
The attack immediately reminds many Kenyans of the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi in 2013, when Al Shabab extremists burst into the luxury shopping center, hurling grenades and starting a days-long siege that left 67 people dead.Source: trtworld.com