Toll rises to six dead, 63 injured in Nairobi attack

NAIROBI: A grenade attack on a Nairobi bus station killed at least six people and wounded 63, according to a new toll issued Sunday by Kenyan Internal Security Minister George Saitoti.

“The death toll is now six, and we have 63 people undergoing treatment at the Kenyatta National Hospital, 11 of them were seriously injured,” he told reporters.

The previous toll for the Saturday attack was five dead and around 60 injured but a sixth person has since died in hospital, hospital sources said.

Responsibility for the attack was not immediately claimed but has been blamed on the Islamist Shebab militia which Kenyan troops are battling in neighbouring Somalia.

“We suspect this is the work of Al-Shebab, but all this will come out in the investigations,” Saitoti said.

“We have intensified security in government installations and all public places, churches, hotels, shopping malls and bus terminuses, so that we may deter such criminals from accomplishing their ill intentions,” he added.

The attack was the deadliest in Nairobi since the devastating August 1998 bombing by Al-Qaeda of the US embassy that killed 213 people and injured 5,000.

AFP