Gunmen were feared to have massacred as many as 30 people during a shoot-out at a shopping mall in Nairobi today.
Eyewitnesses said masked attackers threw grenades into the building in the Kenyan capital and opened fire at about midday.
Dozens of shoppers fled as a gun battle raged inside the city’s exclusive Westgate centre.
Sources last night confirmed some Britons had been caught up in the carnage.
Sir Simon Fraser, the Foreign Office’s chief civil servant, said the British High Commission was working hard on the hostage crisis to “help all involved especially Brits”.
The Kenyan Red Cross said it had offered “psychosocial and trauma support” to at least 200 rescued hostages.
There were thought to be as many as 18 attackers involved, including one woman.
Some reports suggested it was an attempted robbery but officials stated it might be a “terrorist” attack.
The Somali militant group al-Shabab had threatened to strike the centre.
One witness claimed gunmen told Muslims to stand up and leave and that only non-Muslims would be targeted.
Officers surrounded the building in an attempt to evacuate shoppers.
One eyewitness trapped inside told the BBC someone next to them had been shot and was bleeding.
They said: “Thugs inside, we don’t know when the police will rescue us, all over TV and radio, we are warned not to move, am in a dark store, more police coming.”
Security guards were said to have used shopping trolleys to wheel out wounded children. The Westgate mall is frequented by wealthy Kenyans and expatriates.
Witness Arjen Westra said: “I could hear the gunfire moving towards the main entrance. Some people ran out of our cafe in a kind of panic, and quite a number just fell down as flat as possible on the ground.”
Last night Foreign Secretary William Hague said the Government was “in close touch” with the Kenyan authorities and said the “urgent priority” was the welfare of UK nationals.
He wrote: “Appalled by the attack and my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
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