Tyler Hicks, a New York Times staff photographer, was nearby when gunmen opened fire at an upscale Nairobi mall, killing at least 39 people in one of the worst terrorist attacks in Kenya’s history. He was able to go inside the mall as the attack unfolded. 
 
 His conversation with James Estrin has been edited. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Q. 
 
 What happened? How were you so close? 
 
 A. 
 
 I was at a framing shop in an adjacent mall picking up some photographs that had been given to me as gifts by photojournalists who attended my wedding. I was very close. I didn’t have all of my equipment, just had a small camera that I always have with me in case something happens. 
 
 I ran over to the mall and I was able to photograph until my wife [Nichole Sobecki], who is also a photojournalist and was at our house, was able to collect my Kevlar helmet and professional cameras before she came to cover the news herself. 
 
 Tyler Hicks/The New York Times 
 
 When I left the framing shop, I could see right away that there was something serious going on, because there were lots of people running away from the mall. I ran over there and within minutes I could see people who had been shot in the leg or stomach from what appeared to be small arms fire being helped by other civilians. This went on for about 30 minutes. 
 
 The mall is Nairobi’s most high-end shopping center, completely up to Western standards, with movie theaters, nice cafes, supermarkets and a casino. Pretty much anything you need. I’ve been there, so I knew the layout inside. 
 
 From the beginning I wanted to get with some security forces inside the mall. 
 
 Tyler Hicks/The New York Times 
 
 We managed to find an entrance where people who were hiding inside the mall were coming out. We ran into that service entrance and we hooked up with some police who let us stay with them as they did security sweeps clearing different stores — very much like what you see when the military enters a village. Shop to shop and aisle to aisle, looking for the shooters who were still inside. 
 
 I had a clear view in there. I could see that there were multiple bodies lying dead in the mall, some lying together just next to where they were having lunch at a cafe. It seemed everywhere you turned there was another body. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Military forces didn’t know where the militants were, so they continued to sweep through looking for them. Of course, there was the concern of I.E.D.’s or that they would throw a grenade or shoot. In the shopping mall, there was an endless amount of places that they could hide or potentially attack from. 
 
 Q. 
 
 How long were you there? 
 
 A. 
 
 I was around the mall for the better part of the day. I was inside the mall for about two hours. 
 
 Tyler Hicks/The New York Times 
 
 Q. 
 
 What exactly was unfolding in front of you during those two hours? 
 
 A. 
 
 We were with one group of police for most of the time. There were moments when I branched out. If you had to stop, and they continued, you would be in the mall, completely alone, without anyone knowing where these gunmen were. So it was important to make the commitment to stay with them. They moved from place to place, sometimes running, sometimes having to clear areas around corners, where they couldn’t see around the corner, and it looked very much like a military operation inside. 
 
 They had two objectives as far as I could see: one was to try to find the militants. And two, to get civilians out of the mall. There were many civilians who had barricaded themselves inside shops, inside the movie theater, inside restaurants, inside a beauty salon — it seemed like everywhere you went, there were more people who just appeared out of the woodwork. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Q. 
 
 You didn’t see any of the shooters, either dead or alive? 
 
 A. 
 
 No, I didn’t see any of the militants. I only saw the casualties and the fatalities. I estimate I saw between 10 and 12 people who had been killed. 
 
 Q. 
 
 What are you thinking at this point? Is covering a terrorist attack where you live different than covering war in Afghanistan or Syria? 
 
 A. 
 
 When something of this magnitude happens, it’s just as dangerous, if not more dangerous than being in Afghanistan or any other number of countries where there are wars going on. You have to think about where you’re standing, you have to think about where you have cover, the type of obstacles you can place between you and potential gunmen. A lot of the same rules apply when they’re sweeping through a building like that. 
 
 This is just plain and simple murder of unarmed civilians. It’s not a war. These militants went into the mall and executed people: women and children, anyone who got in their path. That’s not typical of war. 
 
 Tyler Hicks/The New York Times 
 
 Tyler Hicks is a staff photographer for The New York Times. In 2009, Mr. Hicks was a member of the team that won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for its coverage of Afghanistan and Pakistan. He received the Newspaper Photographer of the Year award from Pictures of the Year International for his work in 2006 and was third place in this year’s National Press Photographers Association Best of Photojournalism photographer of the year contest, for work from 2012. In 2001, Mr. Hicks was the recipient of the 2001 ICP Infinity Award for Photojournalism for his coverage in Afghanistan, as well as other awards, including World Press and Pictures of the Year and Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan, France. 
 
 Mr. Hicks was born in São Paulo, Brazil, on July 9, 1969. He lives in Nairobi, Kenya, and married the photojournalist Nichole Sobecki on Sept. 7 in Ancramdale, N.Y. 
 
 Follow @TylerHicksPhoto, @JamesEstrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Eyewitnesses saw armed men in black, their heads covered in scarves, entering the Westgate shopping centre on Saturday afternoon 
 
 A senior figure in the Somali militant group al-Shabab has told the BBC it carried out a deadly attack on a shopping centre in neighbouring Kenya. 
 
 The gunmen have been cornered but an unknown number of hostages are still trapped inside Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall, officials say. 
 
 Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said 39 people had been killed, including some of his family, and 150 were injured. 
 
 Al-Shabab said the attack was in response to Kenyan troops in Somalia. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Uhuru Kenyatta: "We shall hunt down the perpetrators" 
 
 There are about 4,000 Kenyan troops in the south of Somalia, where they have been fighting the militants since 2011. 
 
 On its Twitter feed, al-Shabab - which has links to al-Qaeda - said it was behind what it called the "Westgate spectacle". 
 
 Hostages trapped 
 
 In his TV address, Mr Kenyatta said security forces were "in the process of neutralising the attackers and securing the mall". 
 
 He went on: "We shall hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to. We shall get to them and we shall punish them for this heinous crime." 
 
 He said he had "personally lost family members in the Westgate attack". 
 
 Analysis Kenya has about 4,000 troops in southern Somalia. They intervened in 2011 following attacks and kidnappings in northern Kenya near the Somali border. The Kenyans were subsequently integrated into a larger African Union (AU) force of 17,000 soldiers. It has a UN mandate to protect the weak Somali government. In practice this means the AU force - known as Amisom - attack al-Shabab where they can. But al-Shabab still control at least half of southern Somalia. Al-Shabab respond to Amisom by mounting hit and run attacks. They say Amisom are invaders stopping their legitimate vision of creating an Islamic state. Here in Kismayo, for example, the airport comes under regular attack by small arms fire suspected to come from al-Shabaab positions. The Kenyan army responds with heavier weapons to chase the attackers away. 
 
 As night fell in Nairobi, two contingents of army special forces troops are reported to have moved inside the mall. 
 
 A police officer inside the shopping centre told Reuters that the remaining gunmen were barricaded inside a Nakumatt supermarket, one of Kenya's biggest chains. 
 
 In the early hours of Sunday morning, the Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre said the number of hostages was "still unknown, but they are in several locations". 
 
 "The gunmen have been contained in one location, but there are hostages elsewhere in the vicinity who cannot access the exit," the centre said on its Twitter feed. 
 
 Upper levels of the mall had been secured, it said. 
 
 The attackers entered the Westgate centre at about 12:00 local time (09:00 GMT), throwing grenades and firing automatic weapons. A children's day event was being held at the time. 
 
 The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner says a security source told him that at least one of the attackers was a woman who appeared to have some kind of leadership role. 
 
 Our correspondent says that it is unclear how many civilians are hostages and how many are in hiding. 
 
 Al-Shabab said on Twitter that the Kenyan government wanted to negotiate an end to the Westgate attack. But officials have told the BBC they intend to hunt the gunmen down. 
 
 One gunman was arrested and died of his wounds, Kenyan officials told the BBC. Four other gunmen were arrested. 
 
 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage from inside the mall shows the aftermath of the shoot-out 
 
 Security experts are reported to have long warned that the complex, which is at least in part Israeli-owned, was in danger of being subjected to a terror attack. 
 
 Some witnesses said the gunmen had told Muslims to leave and said non-Muslims would be targeted. 
 
 "They came and said: 'If you are Muslim, stand up. We've come to rescue you," said Elijah Lamau. 
 
 He said the Muslims left with their hands up, and then the gunmen shot two people. 
 
 The correspondent in Nairobi for the Economist, Daniel Howden told the BBC he spoke to one man with a Christian first name but a Muslim-sounding surname who managed to escape the attackers by putting his thumb over his first name on his ID. 
 
 Al-Shabab at a glance "The Youth" in Arabic 
 
 Formed as a radical offshoot of the Union of Islamic Courts, which controlled Mogadishu, in 2006 
 
 Previously ran much of southern Somalia 
 
 Lost some popular support by banning Western aid agencies during 2011 famine 
 
 Estimated to have 7,000 to 9,000 fighters Q&A: Who are al-Shabab? 
 
 However, the man told Mr Howden that an Indian man standing next to him who was asked for the name of the Prophet Muhammad's mother was shot dead when he was unable to answer. 
 
 The BBC's Mark Doyle, who is embedded with the African Union (AU) mission in Somalia, says the AU troops attack al-Shabab where they can. 
 
 Al-Shabab says the AU forces are invaders stopping their legitimate vision of creating an Islamic state and respond by mounting hit-and-run attacks, our correspondent says. 
 
 British Foreign Secretary William Hague said there would "undoubtedly" be British nationals caught up in Saturday's events. 
 
 The US State Department says it has reports that American citizens were injured in what it called "a senseless act of violence". 
 
 Two French citizens were among the victims of the attack, the Elysee Palace said in a statement. 
 
 President Francois Hollande "condemns the cowardly attack in the strongest terms and shares the pain of the family of our compatriots", it said. 
 
 Two Canadians, including a diplomat, are also among the dead. 
 
 Nairobi's mortuary superintendent, Sammy Nyongesa Jacob, told Reuters that Africans, Asians and Caucasians were among the bodies brought to the mortuary. 
 
 This is one of the worst incidents in Kenya since the attack on the US embassy in August 1998. 
 
 Image caption At night descended outside the shopping complex, the siege continued 
 
 Image caption Many of those who were inside the Westgate centre when the gun battle began managed to flee, but some were trapped. 
 
 Image caption Armed police combed the corridors as terrified shoppers fled. 
 
 Image caption This woman who had been held by the gunmen was carried out of the building in a state of shock by the emergency services. 
 
 Image caption Some went to extraordinary lengths to escape. 
 
 Image caption This pregnant woman was separated from her husband and two-year-old daughter during the attack. She hid with about 20 others on the roof of the building and was eventually rescued by police and reunited. 
 
 Image caption Security forces went from shop to shop to secure the building. ||||| Gunmen threw grenades, fired automatic weapons and targeted non-Muslims at the upscale Westgate mall in Kenya's capital on Saturday, killing at least 22 people and wounding dozens more, a Red Cross official and witnesses said. 
 
 Armed special forces aim their weapons at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, after gunmen threw grenades and opened fire during an attack that left multiple dead and dozens... (Associated Press) 
 
 A security guard helps a child outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Sept. 21 2013, after gunmen threw grenades and opened fire during an attack that left multiple dead and dozens wounded.... (Associated Press) 
 
 A security officer helps a wounded woman outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, after gunmen threw grenades and opened fire during an attack that left multiple dead and... (Associated Press) 
 
 People run from the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya on Saturday Sept. 21 2013, after gunmen threw grenades and opened fire during an attack that left multiple dead and dozens wounded. A witness to the... (Associated Press) 
 
 An injured person is helped on his arrival at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi after an attack at the Westgate Mall, an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday Sept. 21, 2013, where shooting... (Associated Press) 
 
 The mother and a security guard help a child outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Sept. 21 2013, after gunmen threw grenades and opened fire during an attack that left multiple dead and... (Associated Press) 
 
 A rescue worker helps a child outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, after gunmen threw grenades and opened fire during an attack that left multiple dead and dozens wounded.... (Associated Press) 
 
 A Red Cross assistant helps a child outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday, Sept. 21, 2013, after gunmen threw grenades and opened fire during an attack that left multiple dead and dozens... (Associated Press) 
 
 A body, left, lies outside the Westgate Mall, an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday Sept. 21 2013, where shooting erupted when armed men attempted to rob a shop, according to police. Witnesses... (Associated Press) 
 
 An injured person is helped on his arrival at the Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi after an attack at the Westgate Mall, an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday Sept. 21, 2013, where shooting... (Associated Press) 
 
 A woman with her two children rescued from the mall outside the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday Sept. 21, 2013, where shooting erupted when armed men attempted to rob a shop, according to police.... (Associated Press) 
 
 A body lies outside the Westgate Mall, an upscale shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya Saturday Sept. 21 2013, where shooting erupted when armed men attempted to rob a shop, according to police. Witnesses... (Associated Press) 
 
 Police blamed the attack on terrorists. 
 
 Kenyan military and police surrounded the mall, which had been hosting a children's day event, and helicopters flew overhead. Gunmen remained inside hours after the attack, although firing subsided. 
 
 There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, but an off duty military official identified one of the attackers as Somali. 
 
 People continued to trickle out from hiding places within the mall, which is frequented by expatriates and rich Kenyans in Nairobi's affluent Westlands neighborhood. It was not immediately known how many people remained inside, and whether they were still alive. 
 
 Earlier in the day mall guards used shopping carts to wheel out wounded children, as others emerged crying or clutching their kids. 
 
 The death toll is expected to rise, said Kenya Red Cross official Abbas Gullet. 
 
 "We are treating this as a terrorist attack," said police chief Benson Kibue, adding that there are likely no more than 10 attackers involved. Police did not say what group was responsible for the attack. 
 
 Somali's Islamic extremist rebels, al-Shabab, vowed in late 2011 to carry out a large-scale attack in Nairobi in retaliation for Kenya sending troops into Somalia to fight the insurgents. 
 
 Off duty Sgt. Major Frank Mugungu said Saturday he saw four male attackers and one female, and that he could clearly identify one of the gunmen as a Somali, though he could not identify the rest. 
 
 The Westgate mall, with shops like Nike, adidas and Bose, has Israeli ownership, and security experts have in the past identified the mall as a possible terror target in Nairobi. 
 
 The gunmen announced that non-Muslims would be targeted, said Elijah Kamau, who was at the mall at the time of the midday attack. 
 
 "The gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave. They were safe, and non-Muslims would be targeted," he said. 
 
 Jay Patel, who sought cover on an upper floor in the mall when shooting began, said that when he looked out of a window onto the upper parking deck of the mall he saw the gunmen with a group of people. 
 
 Patel said that as the attackers were talking, some of the people stood up and left and the others were shot. 
 
 The gunmen carried AK-47s and wore vests with hand grenades on them, said Manish Turohit, 18, who hid in a parking garage for two hours. 
 
 "They just came in and threw a grenade. We were running and they opened fire. They were shouting and firing," he said after marching out of the mall in a line of 15 people who all held their hands in the air, in an apparent attempt to not be shot. 
 
 Rob Vandijk, who works at the Dutch embassy, said he was eating at a restaurant inside the mall when attackers lobbed hand grenades inside the building. He said gunfire then burst out and people screamed as they dropped to the ground. 
 
 It appears the attack began at the outdoor seating area of Artcaffe at the front of the mall, witnesses said. 
 
 Patrick Kuria, an employee at Artcaffe, said: "We started by hearing gunshots downstairs and outside. Later we heard them come inside. We took cover. Then we saw two gunmen wearing black turbans. I saw them shoot." 
 
 Some people were shot at the entrance to the mall after volleys of gunfire moved outside and a standoff with police began. Ambulances continued to stream in and out of the mall area, ferrying the wounded who gradually emerged from hiding inside the mall. 
 
 A local hospital was overwhelmed with the number of wounded being brought in hours after the attack, so they had to divert them to a second facility. 
 
 The United Nations secretary-general's office said that Ban Ki-moon has spoken with President Uhuru Kenyatta and expressed his concern. Meanwhile, Britain's Foreign Office urged British nationals to avoid the area, saying it is "urgently looking into" the incident and ready to provide consular assistance in case any British are involved. 
 
 Kenya suffered a spate of grenade attacks that killed more than 60 people from October 2011 to March 2013 after al-Shabab threatened attacks. Police attributed the attacks to sympathizers of al-Shabab in Kenya. 
 
 Authorities said they have thwarted other large-scale attacks targeting public spaces. Kenyan police said in September 2012 they disrupted a major terrorist attack in its final stages of planning, arresting two people with explosive devices and a cache of weapons and ammunition. 
 
 Anti-terror Police Unit boss Boniface Mwaniki said vests found were similar to those used in attacks that killed 76 people in Uganda who gathered to watch the soccer World Cup finals on TV in July 2010. Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for those bombings, saying the attack was in retaliation for Uganda's participation in the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Somalia. 
 
 In January 2012, Kenya said it had thwarted attempted attacks by al-Shabab over Christmas and the New Year. 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press reporters Tom Odula in Nairobi, Kenya, Carley Petesch in Johannesburg and Cassandra Vinograd in London contributed to this report. ||||| Nairobi, Kenya (CNN) -- Armed gunmen faced off with Kenyan police and soldiers inside an upscale Nairobi shopping mall early Sunday, hours after brazenly gunning down shoppers, diners and more. 
 
 Around 2:30 a.m. Sunday (6:30 p.m. ET Saturday) -- an hour after reporting five "visibly shaken" hostages had been released -- Kenya's National Disaster Operation Centre cryptically tweeted "major operations underway." What that meant was a mystery, and it didn't quell fears about what has happened or might happen to an unknown number of civilians who were still unaccounted for inside. 
 
 The same agency offered an update about three hours later stating that hostages were being held "in several locations," adding there was "no communications as yet." By then, government authorities had secured the mall's upper levels, though it was not known where the attackers -- and the threat -- remained. 
 
 Hours earlier, Kenya's president announced that 39 people, including some of his close relatives, were confirmed dead in the attack. Two gunmen, including one who was detained after being shot, are also dead. 
 
 Francis Kimenia, secretary to the Cabinet, tweeted another 293 people got treatment at three area hospitals, which "are appealing for more blood." The wounded range in age from 2 to 78, the disaster operations center said, urging people to "remember them in your prayers." 
 
 Q and A: Al-Shabaab grew amid Somalia's lawlessness 
 
 Al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda-linked militant group based in Somalia with ties to Nairobi's Eastleigh district and whose most recent attack of this scale came July 2010 in Uganda's capital, claimed responsibility for the carnage and vowed not to negotiate with Kenyan authorities. It claimed that "all Muslims" were escorted from the mall before the attack, suggesting its targets were people who didn't believe in their extreme form of Islam. 
 
 "The Mujahideen are still strong inside #Westgate Mall and still holding their ground," the group said late Saturday via Twitter. "All praise is due to Allah!" 
 
 Kenyan authorities, though, insist they have the upper hand, where it's now early Sunday morning. The last few hours of Saturday and the first few of Sunday, in Kenya, were largely quiet outside the mall except for movement 
 
 Police tweeted that the attackers "have been isolated and pinned down in a room by security forces." And Joseph Ole Lenku, the national government's cabinet secretary for interior and coordination, hinted that the worst should be over. 
 
 "Our security forces have taken control of the situation," Lenku said. 
 
 "Attackers of Westgate shopping mall have been isolated and pinned down in a room by security forces in the ongoing operation," the national police said on Twitter. 
 
 Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, blasted "the despicable perpetrators of this cowardly act (who) hoped to intimidate, divide and cause despondency among Kenyans and would like to (create) a closed, fearful and fractured society." 
 
 CNN security analyst: Kenya, Westerners high on Al-Shabaab's list 
 
 Kenya is no stranger to terrorism, including a 1998 bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi that left 213 dead and other attacks before and since tied to al Qaeda and related groups. 
 
 In a televised speech late Saturday, Kenyatta said his nation has "overcome" such attacks before, refusing to budge from its values or relinquish his security. And it will do so again, he promised. 
 
 "We shall hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to," the president said. "We shall get them, and we shall punish them for this heinous crime. 
 
 Midday peace shattered by gunfire, blasts 
 
 "Westgate Mall lends itself a serene and safe environment away from the city centre," the mall's official website states. 
 
 That may have been true before -- while there had been warnings, the high-end mall filled with more than 80 stores and restaurants had never been targeted. But it couldn't have been further from the truth Saturday. 
 
 Rattles of gunshots that started around noon shattered any sense of normalcy among those picking up groceries, savoring lunch and browsing through the racks at stores. 
 
 Uche Kaigwa-Okoye was sipping coffee when he heard what first sounded like a fallen table, then the continuing rat-a-tat of gunfire. As the gunshots became louder, people began screaming and running for the exits. 
 
 Gripped by fear: Not seeing attackers was part of the terror 
 
 Some went outside, only to turn around and go back into the four-story mall after realizing bullets were flying there as well. Kaigwa-Okoye was among them, joining about 20 people who took shelter for about five hours in a women's bathroom cubicle. 
 
 "They had grenades, and it was really, really loud," he told CNN, adding that he noticed tear gas in the corridors as well. "All of us felt like they were close." 
 
 As people texted family and friends outside the mall, word spread that nobody could be trusted -- and, even if the good guys could be sorted from the bad guys, the barrage of intermittent gunfire made any escape seem futile. 
 
 Sara Head, a Washington resident, experienced similar horror in the mall's parking garage. As her car pulled up, she and others heard gunfire -- prompting them to crawl underneath and sneak behind cars before getting into a stairwell. She had company there, including two people bleeding from gunshot wounds. 
 
 Eventually, the stairwell lights went back on and the door to a nearby supermarket opened, so they dashed through and past a nearby loading dock to safety. 
 
 "There was blood throughout the supermarket," Head recalled. "... It wasn't clear if it was OK to exit. I was short of sheep following." 
 
 Soldiers crawl under cars, copters fly overhead 
 
 By then, the sight of Kenyan soldiers in military fatigues crawling under cars with their guns cocked made clear that the once shiny, pristine Westgate mall had become a war zone. The whirr of surveillance helicopters overhead drove home the point. 
 
 Police took those leaving the building in a straight line, arms raised in the air. They were all taken to a secluded place for vetting to ensure they were not attackers. 
 
 The military asked media not to televise anything live because the gunmen might be watching screens inside the mall and therefore take cues on their movement. 
 
 And everyone else, except for authorities, was urged to stay away as roads and nearby locales, including another shopping center, was closed down. 
 
 World leaders condemn terror attack at Kenya mall, pledge support 
 
 The U.N. Security Council condemned the attack "in the strongest possible terms," voicing solidarity with Kenya while calling terrorism "one of the most serious threats to international peace and security." 
 
 Most of the casualties are Kenyan, authorities said. But the mall is popular with expatriates and foreign nationals, who are among those killed and injured. 
 
 That includes two dead French nationals, their government said. Likewise, two Canadians -- one of them a diplomat -- died in the attack, according to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's office. 
 
 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said there were several Americans among the injured but none among the dead, though the wife of a foreign national working for the U.S. Agency for International Development was killed. 
 
 "As we prepare to bring the world's leaders at the United Nations next week," Kerry said in reference to the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, "we are reminded again in tragedy of our common humanity." 
 
 CNN's Faith Karimi and Greg Botelho reported and wrote from Atlanta; Lillian Lesposo reported from Nairobi. CNN's Michael Martinez, Chelsea Carter, Tim Lister, Nima Elbagir, Boriana Milanova, Jamie Crawford, Stefan Simons, Karen Smith and Azadeh Ansari contributed to this report.
– The death toll from an attack on an upscale mall in Nairobi today has now reached at least 39, with another 150 injured, the country's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, said in a national TV address. Kenyatta says he "personally lost family members" in the attack on the Westgate mall, the BBC reports. "We shall hunt down the perpetrators wherever they run to," he promised Kenyans in his address. "We shall get to them and we shall punish them for this heinous crime." Americans are among those injured, reports CNN, though no further details were available. "They just came in and threw a grenade," one witness tells AP. "We were running and they opened fire. They were shouting and firing." The Somali militant group al-Shabab has claimed responsibility for what it is calling the "Westgate spectacle", reports the BBC. On Twitter, al-Shabab says "all Muslims inside #Westgate were escorted out by the Mujahideen before beginning the attack," reports CNN. It also tweeted that it still had control of the mall, but after 10 hours of fighting, Kenyan police tweeted that they have "isolated and pinned down" the attackers. A New York Times photographer happened to be nearby when the attackers opened fire—his photos from inside the mall are incredible, though very graphic.