By Osagie Alonge
Reports say at least three people have been killed in twin bomb blasts in Mombasa, Kenya on May, 3, 2014 leaving several injured.
One of the blasts is reported to have happened at a busy bus station in Mwembe Tayari. A grenade was thrown into a crowded minibus killing three and injuring 20 people.
Victims were said to be covered in a pool of blood, surrounded by shattered glass from the bus, littered on the road.
The attackers reportedly rode on a motorbike, and threw the grenade at the crowd of people at the bus terminus, Mombasa county commissioner Nelson Marwa has confirmed.
‘I didn’t see who threw the object, but I heard a loud explosion before I fell to the ground. I then felt my legs go numb,’ Halima Sidi, 26, who works at a local supermarket, told Reuters at a hospital as nurses bandaged her wounded legs.
The second explosion happened at Reef Hotel, a popular beach resort hotel in the Nyali area of the city. A bag had been found on the beach, which was abandoned at the gate of the hotel after it was found to contain what turned out to be an explosive device, which subsequently went off, Sky News reports.
Hotel manager Mohammed Hersi told Sky News there had been no injuries and all the guests were safe.
No one has claimed responsibility for the blasts but fingers are pointing to al Qaeda and related groups.
Last year, 67 people died in a terrorist attack on Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi.
