Westgate Shopping Mall on fire as terrorists blow themselves up.
Kenyan soldiers are currently in control of Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall, the Kenyan interior ministry announced overnight Monday, with all the hostages trapped by Islamist gunmen believed to have been freed.
A government spokesman said the three-day-long siege, in which the attackers massacred at least 62 shoppers and staff, was close to being
declared over.
He said special forces combing the building were no longer encountering any resistance.
"Our special forces are inside the building checking the rooms. We think that everyone, the hostages, have been evacuated, but we don't want to take any chances," Manoah Esipisu said.
"The special forces call this sanitising. At the moment they have not met any resistance, but of course we are not ruling out the possibility that there are a couple of them hiding in a remote room or corner," he added.
After a day of fierce gunfire, huge explosions and black smoke that billowed over the Kenyan capital, the vast centre was quiet 60 hours after the gunmen stormed the complex, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
"We're in control of Westgate," the interior ministry said in a message on Twitter.
No details on the numbers of hostages released have been given, but 63 people were earlier recorded missing by the Red Cross, a figure thought to include hostages as well as those possibly killed.
Special forces on Monday killed at least three gunmen and wounded several in bitter fighting in the part Israeli-owned complex, which was popular with wealthy Kenyans and expatriates.
Israeli forces were also involved in operations, along with British and US agents.
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