Bloomberg correspondent Marco Lui was on the second floor of the mall when the attack started he said that two explosions happened within about five minutes of each other. Nation TV footage showed dozens of people escaping from a back entrance. Mall security guards used shopping carts to ferry out wounded children. Reports indicated children were among the victims, and patrons that were carrying small children were among those trapped. Ambulances were present at the mall as rescuers started moving emerging victims. I saw them shoot." Some of the casualties were at the entrance to the mall after the assailants moved outside and a stand-off then commenced with police. Then we saw two gunmen wearing black turbans. An Artcaffe employee, Patrick Kuria, said: "We started by hearing gunshots downstairs and outside. Other witnesses said the attack began at the outdoor seating area of Artcaffe at the front of the mall. Rob Van Dijk, an employee of the Dutch embassy, said that while he was eating at a restaurant the attack started with grenades and was followed by gunfire as patrons screamed and dropped to the ground. Inspector General of Police David Kimaiyo wrote that there were "police at the scene and the area surrounded." The Secretary-General of the Kenya Red Cross Society, Abbas Gullet, said that rescue workers could not reach some of the patrons in the mall. A report indicated that about 80 people were trapped in the basement, but police said that they had escorted some shoppers to safety and were trying to capture the gunmen. Police surrounded the area and urged residents to stay away. There were additional reports of grenade explosions. Cameras in the mall revealed the gunmen carried assault rifles and wore civilian clothing. Fighting with armed police continued over 48 hours later. On Saturday 21 September 2013, at about noon, at least four masked assailants (initially claimed by the government to be between 10 and 15) attacked the Westgate shopping mall, the most upscale mall in Nairobi, in its Westlands district. Shootings and initial siege A Kenyan military MD 500 Defender helicopter hovers over the Westgate mall, 23 September Onlookers on a hotel roof The country was celebrating the International Day of Peace when the incident took place. The Sunday Telegraph claimed that it had seen United Nations documents that warned that in the previous month the threat of an "attempted large-scale attack" in Kenya was "elevated." After the incident, Nairobi senator Mike Sonko claimed that he had warned the security services of a possible attack three months previously. A manhunt was also launched for eight more suspects. The two suspects were from a Nairobi neighbourhood where Somali immigrants live. One week before the incident and a month after United Nations warnings of possible attacks, Kenyan police claimed to have disrupted a major attack in its final stages of planning after arresting two people with grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, and suicide vests packed with ball bearings. The incident followed threats from Al-Shabaab in late 2011 of attacks in Kenya in retaliation for Operation Linda Nchi, a coordinated military operation in southern Somalia that was launched against the group by the Somali Armed Forces and Kenya Defence Forces. The mall was officially declared secured on 24 September. On 20 September 2015, Foreign Policy magazine reported the Westgate attack on 21 September lasted several hours, with the last victim killed before special Kenyan security forces entered the mall. On 4 November 2013, a Kenyan court charged four Somali nationals with harbouring the gunmen in their homes, with each pleading not guilty. Kenyan authorities arrested dozens of people in the aftermath of the attack, but had not announced any suspects directly related to the siege. Many media outlets also suspected the insurgent group's involvement in the attack based on earlier reprisal warnings it had issued in the wake of Operation Linda Nchi from 2011 to 2012. The extremist Islamic group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the incident, which it characterised as retribution for the Kenyan military's deployment in the group's home country of Somalia. Approximately 200 people were wounded in the massacre. The attack resulted in 71 total deaths, including 62 civilians, five Kenyan soldiers, and all four gunmen. There are conflicting reports about the number killed in the attack, since part of the mall collapsed due to a fire that started during the siege. On 21 September 2013, four masked gunmen attacked the Westgate shopping mall, an upmarket mall in Nairobi, Kenya.
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