NAIROBI, March 10 (Reuters) - An explosion at a bus station in downtown
Nairobi on Saturday evening killed at least two people and wounded more than
30, the Kenyan Red Cross said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but Nairobi was hit by
grenade attacks in October after Kenya sent troops into neighbouring Somalia
to fight al Qaeda-allied al Shabaab rebels.
Following the explosion, a fire blazed in a small crater at the Machakos bus
station as police cordoned off the area where a lifeless man clad in a blue
jacket and white trousers lay on his back.
The Red Cross said there were two confirmed fatalities, 12 people had been
taken into intensive care and 24 were slightly injured. Bystanders helped
carry the wounded to ambulances.
Witnesses told Reuters they believed there had been up to four blasts, but
there was no official confirmation of multiple explosions.
Police sources at the bus station near Nairobi's central business district
said a grenade had been thrown into a crowd early on Saturday evening.
In October, grenades were thrown into a bar and another bus station, both
not far from the scene of Saturday's attack, killing one person and wounding
more than 20.
A Kenyan man arrested shortly afterwards pleaded guilty to the attack on the
first bus station, and to being a member of al Shabaab. He was sentenced to
life in prison.
The Muslim Youth Centre, a Kenyan movement that pledges allegiance to al
Shabaab and al Qaeda, said on its Twitter account: "Blasts in Nairobi...more
to follow...."
While Nairobi had been spared deadly attacks since October, suspected al
Shabaab sympathisers have launched a string of strikes in the north of the
country near the Somali border.
(Reporting by Noor Khamis, Humphrey Malalo, David Clarke and William
Maclean; Editing by Michael Roddy)
C Thomson Reuters 2012 All rights reserved
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Received on Sat Mar 10 2012 - 21:01:26 EST
