BREAKING NEWS - Kenya: 'If You Were Muslim They Let You Go'

Running for cover

"I saw a lot of children and elderly people being shot dead. I don’t understand why you would shoot a five-year-old child. They were firing at random at anyone who tried to escape."

A witness to the attack by al Shabaab militants on a shopping centre in Nairobi has told Sky News the gunmen killed anyone who was not Muslim.

Saadia Ahmed, a radio presenter from Nairobi, said: "We heard three explosions outside the building then all of a sudden we heard gunshots and people ducked down.

"A lot of people were shot while they were trying to escape. I saw one of the gunmen with an AK-47 and later two of them were talking and it sounded like Somali or Arabic."

Ms Ahmed said the attackers released people who were able to prove they could speak Arabic.

"I witnessed a few people get up and say something in Arabic and the gunmen let them go. A colleague of mine said he was Muslim and recited something in Arabic and they let him go as well.

"I saw a lot of children and elderly people being shot dead. I don’t understand why you would shoot a five-year-old child. They were firing at random at anyone who tried to escape."

Chaos and the military & police  try to restore order and
prevent further murder

Hannah Chisholm, a Briton visiting Nairobi, said she and 60 others barricaded themselves into a large storeroom.

"We kept running to different places but the shots were getting louder so we barricaded ourselves along with about 60 others into a large storeroom," she said.

"There were children hiding with us as well as someone who had been shot. The gunfire was loud and we were scared but at that point we thought the gunmen were thieves so we assumed they wouldn't try to reach the storeroom."

Satpal Singh, who was in a cafe when the attackers struck, said he ran downstairs before he was shot near the exit.

"A Somali guy shot at me," he said. "He was carrying a rifle, an AK-47."

A witness, who gave only his first name, Jay, said: "They were not speaking Swahili. They spoke something that seemed like Arabic or Somali."

                                                             Women and children duck in fear

Sky News