• Foreign Office says Britons in Kenya should be 'extra vigilant'
• Reports that al-Shabaab Islamists plan Nairobi attacks
Terrorists may be in the final stages of planning attacks on the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the Foreign Office has warned, saying that Kenyan authorities had told the public of a "heightened threat".
"We believe that terrorists may be in the final stages of planning attacks. Attacks could be indiscriminate and target Kenyan institutions as well as places where expatriates and foreign travellers gather, such as hotels, shopping centres and beaches," a Foreign Office spokesperson said. Britons were advised to exercise extra vigilance and caution.
Security concerns in Nairobi have grown since hundreds of Kenyan troops crossed the border into neighbouring Somalia in October in pursuit of Islamist militants from the al-Shabaab group. Linked to al-Qaida, al-Shabaab is blamed by the authorities for a series of raids into Kenya and kidnappings.
The militants have repeatedly threatened to attack Nairobi in retaliation for the incursion. Since Kenyan troops crossed the border, there have been two grenade attacks on a bar and bus stop in Nairobi, and a series of bombings and shootings in the remote north-east in which at least 30 people have died. Kenyan authorities have arrested a number of alleged members of al-Shabaab in recent weeks, including a Briton who was detained in December in the coastal city of Mombasa, according to a local newspaper, the Daily Nation. The newspaper said that the British national was suspected of being a bomb expert for al-Shabaab. Kenyan police were said to have raided his house and found materials and chemicals believed to be used in bomb-making, including detonators and timers, and also questioned his wife, a Kenyan of Somali origin.
The newspaper said that Scotland Yard had sent a team to Kenya to help in the investigation. British authorities have previously voiced concern about young men travelling to Somalia to fight with al-Shabaab, which has many foreign fighters in its ranks.