Man shot dead outside US embassy in Kenya

The United States embassy in Kenya has confirmed a shooting incident outside its offices in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Thursday afternoon.

‘‘Confirmed: Shooting incident near the Embassy. No Embassy personnel were involved. We refer you to Kenyan authorities for further details,’‘ their tweet read.

Confirmed: Shooting incident near the Embassy. No Embassy personnel were involved. We refer you 2 Kenyan authorities 4 further details.

— U.S. Embassy Nairobi (@USEmbassyKenya) October 27, 2016

Local media reported from police sources that a man was shot dead by security detail guarding the US Embassy in Nairobi. The shooting it was said occurred at the entrance of the VISA section.

“There has been a shooting outside the embassy and a man is dead,” a senior police officer said.

Kenya’s Capital news portal quotes a police chief as confirming the attack. According to Vitallis Otieno, the deceased was shot after stabbing a security officer in the hand and injuring him.

Otieno added that; “the officer sustained injuries in the head and hand after the confrontation in which the attacker had tried to grab a gun from him.”

Following the incident, heavily armed police officers were immediately deployed to the scene and sealed off part of the road as investigations got underway.