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Six killed in blast in Kenyan capital - emergency services

by Reuters
Monday, 31 March 2014 18:11 GMT

People look at the scene of an explosion inside a residential house along Juja Road in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, March 30, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Mukoya

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In the past, such attacks in the Eastleigh area of Nairobi - which is popular with Somalis - have been blamed on Somalia's al Shabaab Islamist group

(Adds new death toll, details)

NAIROBI, March 31 (Reuters) - An explosion in an area of Kenya's capital Nairobi that is popular with Somalis killed six people and wounded several others on Monday, the National Disaster Operations Centre said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. In the past, such attacks in the Eastleigh area of Nairobi have been blamed on Somalia's al Shabaab Islamist group, which attacked a Nairobi shopping mall in September and killed at least 67 people.

"Police are securing the area for emergency response services," the disaster organisation said on its official Twitter site.

Nine people were critically injured, it added.

Nairobi's police commander Benson Kibui told Reuters the incident might have involved twin blasts. He confirmed the five dead and said he was seeking confirmation of a sixth killed.

Ambulances and private cars ferried injured to hospital, a witness said.

On Sunday, a man suspected of assembling a bomb was killed when it went off where he lived near Eastleigh, Kenyan newspapers reported.

The Standard daily, which cited police and witnesses, had said three men who lived with the victim fled in a car shortly after Sunday's blast. (Reporting by Noor Ali and Humphrey Malalo; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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