MOMBASA: Two gunmen stormed a packed church near the Kenyan coastal city of Mombasa yesterday and opened fire on worshippers, killing three people and wounding others, in what police called a terrorist attack.
One witness said the gunmen shouted out in a foreign language before shooting indiscriminately at the congregation. Blood-spattered Bibles and overturned plastic chairs lay strewn across the church’s floor after the attack.
“Both carried big guns and began shooting all over the place. I fell to the ground and could hear screams,” said Lilian Omondi, who was leading a prayer recital at the time.
Kenya’s parliament has called for better coordination between the security and intelligence agencies after 67 people were killed in an attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi in September.
The raid took place in Likoni, located across a deep-water channel from Mombasa city, a major tourist hub. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Likoni’s police chief Robert Mureithi said the high number of bullet cartridges recovered for the Joy in Christ Church indicated the gunmen were armed with automatic weapons.
The attackers tried to raid a second church nearby but fled when armed police on patrol in the neighbourhood appeared. “This has all the indicators of a terrorist attack because the attackers did not steal anything and appeared focused on killing,” Mureithi told reporters at the scene.
Two people were killed at the church. A medic in the emergency ward at Mombasa’s main hospital said a third person died in hospital.
Reuters
