Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinnet confirmed there were casualties, but authorities have not released a tally for the dead or wounded.

Boinnett told reporters that police have evacuated many people from the complex and are in the process of securing the property. As night fell, gunfire could still be heard echoing around the site on Nairobi’s Riverside Drive.

Police instructed journalists to move back and have cordoned off the area.

Al-Shabaab claims responsibility

Somalia-based militant group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the attack in an online statement. The group later said “fierce clashes” continued at the site and said 47 people had been killed, a number not confirmed by other sources.

The group has carried out several previous attacks in Kenya, including the September 2013 assault on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall. That attack claimed the lives of 67 people and injured 150.

The hotel assault comes one day after a Nairobi court said three men accused of aiding the Westgate attack will be put on trial.

Attack started with blast

Witness Duran Farah, who is the former president of Somalia’s Olympic Committee, told VOA’s Harun Maruf that he and some colleagues were entering the complex at the time of the attack.

“A loud explosion happened at the gate. Next there was shooting, an exchange of fire, a lot of fire, and we see people rushing and running around in every direction,” he said. He said he and his colleagues escaped by running down an alleyway.

Workers who escaped the buildings said colleagues had huddled in offices and under desks for safety. Boinet told journalists in a second media briefing that because of the swift response of the security agencies the situation has been contained.

A team of operatives from Recce Squad, Flying Squad, Anti-Terrorism Police Unit and Bomb Squad led by the commandant of the General Service Unit (GSU) had entered the building when the gunshots were heard.

Two separate rounds of gunfire where heard from the building between 6:30pm and 8:00pm. 
 
It is believed that there are six attackers hiding in some part of the building where civilians are still confined at. Henry Gitai, a former journalist who works in one of the offices in the hotel building is one of those who were rescued.

“I cannot say much because there are people still inside their lives are in danger but I appeal to people to stop calling the people inside so that security can easily trace them,” Gitai said immediately after he was evacuated.

According to preliminary information released by the IGP, the suspected terrorists arrived at the hotel around 3pm using motor vehicle registration numbers KCN 340E and another vehicle, which managed to bypass security guards and enter the hotel premises.
 
The attackers shot at the guards. They threw a number of explosives at three different vehicles in the parking lot near I&M bank before proceeding to the foyer of Dustin hotel. At the foyer, a suicide bomber detonated his vest, injuring a number of guests. It was then that rapid shooting began. 

Several people sustained gunshot wounds and are being treated in different hospitals including Kenyatta hospital, Nairobi hospital, Mpisha hospital, Agha Khan hospital and Avenue hospital among others. 

Riverside street is home to more than 12 embassies including that of Uganda, Australia, Chile and Germany.