BBC News with David Austin.

Security officials in Kenya say government troops are continuing to search for suspected Islamist gunmen who carried out a deadly attack on the up-market Westgate shopping mall in the capital Nairobi. Sounds of gunfire and explosions were heard deep into the night from inside the four-story building. And officials say the group has been pinned down in one part of the complex. This man was in his office in the shopping center when the attack started.

“Suddenly we heard three, four blasts again and then a lot of gunshots and that’s when we realize that we’ve probably having a, perhaps a bank rubbery but then I saw a whole crowd of people ran out from the exit area into the parking lot and they were followed by two gunmen dressed in black with banner on their head showing automatic weapons and they shooting indiscriminately. And we saw people being shot under a tent where the children were having a cookery competition. And we suddenly realized that we were under attack.”

The Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta says 39 people were killed in the attack including some members of his family. The BBC’s Ann Soya in Nairobi has been following events and is at the scene.

Well what we know as of now is that we heard some gunfire there and some blasts we suspected may have been grenades that were been blasted there. What we know now is that they’re expecting statement from the president but the attackers are still in that building. The military officers as well as the police have still surrounded the whole building. Inside that building the police did say that they have combed, they’re combing the different rooms in that building.