Magaidi walivyoteka watu Westgate

A CCTV image shows three armed terrorists entering a bank in the Nairobi shopping centre

This is the horrifying moment one of the terrorists in the Kenyan shopping centre attack levelled his gun at cowering hostages, ready to execute them.

The attacker, wearing a camouflage jacket and facemask, points a handgun at customers in a bank as they lie under a counter with their hands around their heads. 

The CCTV pictures were taken inside the Diamond Trust Bank on the ground floor of the Westgate shopping mall in the early stages of the hostage crisis.

The group is thought to include families who were attending a cookery demonstration by a TV chef Ruhila Adatia-Sood, who was six months pregnant and died in the attack.

They were eventually rescued by the Red Cross, who arrived with stretchers  as the terrorists moved inside the building.

For many it was their choice  of hiding place that made the difference between death or survival. 

Some security camera footage shows gunmen raking toilet cubicles with gunfire, apparently after learning that people were hiding inside.

Other attackers took the time to divide Muslims from non-Muslims after demanding that some recite the Shahada, the Muslim profession of faith.

A man trapped inside the shopping centre told The Mail  on Sunday he had a clear view  of a woman brandishing a sniper rifle.

Achebe Odida, 42, a glass engraver, described how he hid under the counter of a mobile phone shop as the shooting began and raised his head to look out  of the window. 

‘I saw a woman wearing a black headscarf and a black shawl over a pink top and black trousers,’ he said. 

‘While shoppers were running and screaming through the mall, she moved slowly and calmly to take up position behind a pillar. She looked like a Somali woman, tall and slender with dark skin.’

He saw her brandishing the rifle as if to take aim, but did  not see her shooting anyone.

Daily Mail