Seige in Kenyan shopping mall continues

2013-09-23 177

EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL WHICH WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3

Gunfire erupts from a shopping mall in Nairobi where Islamist militants are holed up with an unkown number of hostages.

Soldiers positioned outside the shopping centre ran across the street and crouched in bushes to survey the scene.

At least 68 people are reported dead after the group - believed to be linked to the al Shabaab militia in Somalia - stormed the upscale Westgate shopping center on Saturday hurling grenades and firing automatic weapons.

The militants are demanding Kenya pull its troops out of Somalia.

The assault is the biggest single attack in Kenya since al Qaeda's East Africa cell bombed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998, killing more than 200 people.