At least three people were killed when attackers threw an explosive device at passengers at a bus station in Mombasa on Saturday, and a luxury hotel in the Kenyan coastal city was damaged in a separate blast, officials said, according to the Associated Press.
Ranjit Sondhi, a director at the hotel, told The Associated Press that the hotel was not damaged and the blast occurred on a nearby public beach and much of the impact was absorbed by a wall, the AP reported.
The Interior Ministry had initially said that the explosion had taken place at a gate at the hotel, but ministry spokesman Mwenda Njoka later clarified that it had actually happened on the beach, according to the AP.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Kenya has blamed similar attacks on the al Qaeda-linked Somali group al Shabaab, which killed at least 67 people at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi last September, the AP reported.
"What happened is a grenade was thrown at passengers," Mombasa county commissioner Nelson Marwa told journalists, according to the AP. "The attackers were riding on a motor bike, and lobbed the grenade at the crowd of people at the bus terminus."
More than 20 people were wounded and a roof of one building was ripped off by the blast and part of its wall collapsed, the AP reported. At the bus terminus, victims were sprawled in a pool of blood and the road was littered with shattered glass from a bus.
The Kenyan coast's large Muslim minority, many of whom feel marginalized by the government, has been a fertile recruiting ground for Islamist militant networks, according to the AP.
President Uhuru Kenyatta has said the tourism sector was "on its knees" due to attacks by the militants who want Kenyan troops out of Somaliabut Kenyatta has rejected their demand, the AP reported. Mombasa is a draw for tourists as well as a major port for the east African region, situated on the Indian Ocean coastline.
