- Title: Kenya-Tanzania: Attacks On Us Embassies In Nairobi And Dar-Es-Salaam
- Date: 8th August 1998
- Summary: The death toll from the car bomb attacks aimed at the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and the Tanzanian capital Dar-Es-Salaam has reached 116 with over 4200 injured. Kenyan Foreign Minister Bonaya Godana said on August 8 108 people had died in the Nairobi blast. A massive US investigation swung into gear in the Kenyan capital as rescue workers continued a desperate scramble for survivors thought to be trapped beneath the rubble following the blast on August 9th. Dozens of US medical and forensic experts began arriving in Nairobi as Washington launched the investigation into the attacks. In Nairobi rescue workers used their bare hands to try to reach at least three people they believed are still alive, nearly 30 hours after the attack, in a building next to the US mission. . One man died when on the verge of being rescued, having survived over 24 hours pinned beneath tonnes of masonry. In Tanzania at least eight US embassy staff or citizens were killed in the blasts and five others were still unaccounted for. United States Embassy worker Jim Owens said his first response when he heard the blast in Dar-Es-Salaam, which has killed eight people and injured 74, was that it might be a gas explosion. US emergency medical teams arrived in the Kenyan capital earlier on August 8 to reinforce rescue efforts. Israel was also sending a team with expertise in rescuing people from bombed buildings. Kenyan and British army engineers worked through the night to try to reach at least five people trapped in the rubble of Ufundi House, a five-storey building next to the embassy which was almost levelled by the blast.
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- Location: KENYA NAIROBI
- Reuters ID: LDL001298AO3R
- Aspect Ratio: 4:3
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- Copyright Holder: Reuters Archive
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