Two in US embassy car shot dead in Nairobi

Carjackers with AK-47s shot dead two women in a US embassy vehicle in Nairobi's western outskirts yesterday, and police killed two of the fleeing gunmen during a shootout in nearby bush.

Police spokesman Gideon Kibunjah said two policemen were also shot and wounded as they chased the gunmen after the midday carjacking on the main highway in the Kenyan capital, bitterly nicknamed "Nairobbery" by its residents.

Gangsters driving a stolen vehicle had stopped in front of a black four-wheel drive with diplomatic plates issued to the United States and ordered the five occupants out, he said. This is the fourth criminal attack in less than a year in Kenya on diplomats or their families and the second involving the US diplomatic community. A United States embassy spokeswoman said she could make no immediate comment. In Washington, a State Department official said he was aware of the report but had no details. Carjackings are common in Nairobi but are far more likely to happen at night, when attackers set obstructions on the road and hold people up for their wallets, mobile phones and cars.

Television footage from the scene showed three white people - an elderly man, a teenage boy and woman - standing at the scene where the two bodies had been covered. An elderly Kenyan man, identified by residents as church elder Humphrey Mwaura Ruhang'a, wept and fell to the ground next to one of the victims. The driver of the first stolen vehicle was found at the scene, bound hand and foot in the back among potatoes spilled from a sack.

Soon after the fatal shootings, the gunmen dumped the diplomatic vehicle and its easily identifiable red plates. Kibunjah said it was a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, a luxury SUV and favourite target of carjackers in the east African country. There have been no arrests yet but two AK-47s were recovered, Kibunjah said.

Kenya's police, who patrol with assault rifles, generally give no quarter to armed criminals and shoot-outs are common. Internal Security Minister John Michuki last year issued a controversial "shoot-to-kill" order against armed criminals, many of whom have automatic weapons that have flooded Kenya for years from conflicts in neighbouring Somalia and Sudan.