The president of Kenya says the Nairobi attack ended after all the militants were killed News from the world

The president of Kenya said that the security forces killed all four militants who attacked a hotel and an office complex in Nairobi, in an attack that killed at least 14 people.

Uhuru Kenyatta said today that 14 civilians were confirmed dead and over 700 others were safely evacuated.

The attack on dusitD2 began shortly after 3pm on Tuesday with an explosion in the parking lot and then a suicide bombing in the lobby, police said.

The assault on the hotel complex in the capital of Kenya, which includes a luxury hotel, restaurants, a spa and several office buildings hosting international companies, has been the highest terrorist profile of the country for many years.

The attack was claimed by al-Shabaab, the Islamist militant organization based in neighboring Somalia, on its internal and online radio network. Al-Shabaab was responsible for an attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi in 2013 which killed at least 67 people.

Witnesses said two cars were driven to the hotel complex around 3:00 pm. Security personnel fell under fire before at least four armed men entered the compound, detonating a major explosion and initially targeting a bank and diners at a Thai restaurant.

Security camera images showed young men in black combat uniforms and loaded belts, armed with AK47.

The survivors reported hearing a devastating explosion and saw people being mowed down by armed men while sitting in a bar. The victims were left lying on the tables, bleeding.

"We were changing our shifts, and it was then that I heard a loud bang and people were screaming," said Enoch Kibet, who works as a cleaner at the bar and managed to crawl out of a basement gate. "I could not believe I was alive, the explosion was so strong and it rocked the whole complex."

In the hours following the attack, the armed men and security forces were engaged in a violent gunfight. Plumes of smoke rose in the air from several burning cars. "There was a bomb, there's a lot of gunshots," said a man who worked on the whole, who asked not to be named.

Tuesday's attack came exactly three years after an al-Shabaab attack on a Kenyan military base in El Adde, Somalia, where about 140 Kenyan soldiers were killed.