Westgate Mall

I want to get right to the breaking story of the morning. You're looking at live pictures of those massive pl And we have the latest on the rescue operation as well that's ongoing. The death toll now at 69, 175 injured. We know Americans were among the injured. But big questions this morning about whether Americans were also among the terrorists. There was a list out there. But look at this chilling photo as well. A little girl running to safety right across the shopping mall after the deadly attack first broke out. ABC's Lindsay Davis is there at the scene right now in Nairobi, Kenya and has the latest on this rapidly changing situation. Lindsay. To call the situation out here tense would certainly be an understatement. Just in the last few minutes we have heard heavy gunfire, loud explosions, that billowing smoke that has been continuing for at least the last 15 or so minutes. Here this morning we heard from Kenyan officials that they were closing in on the attackers. Perhaps this is evidence of what we've been hearing and seeing this morning. This morning armed terrorists are reportedly holding roughly a dozen hostages in this supermarket inside the Westgate Mall as Kenyan troops try to force the militants out without risking innocent lives. This video shows the chaos just after it began at noon on Saturday. 10 to 15 terrorists, including women, attacked the mall wearing black tactical clothing and ski masks, using explosive devices There were three or four rapid explosions, a lot of gunfire, another explosion and we suddenly saw a crowd of people run out of the exit. Sunil Sakhdeva is an orthodontist who was working inside the mall. Two guys walked after them, they were tall, thin, dark and they had bandanas on their heads. About 30 seconds later three people attempted to get up and run and as they were running this one of them shot at them and they fell in the parking lot. By mid-afternoon hundreds more had rushed to escape. Some crawled for cover in stores and even air shafts. Some of the victims pushed out in shopping carts, others driven out in body bags. Elaine Dang was one of five Americans injured in the attack. I just got out of surgery, I'm okay, I'm very grateful to be alive. 4. 44pm Saturday, Kenyan officials call the attack an act of terrorism. The al-Qaeda linked extremist group Al-Shabaab reportedly claiming responsibility, retaliation for Kenya sending troops into neighboring Somalia. Overnight, the BBC spoke with an Al-Shabaab military commander who says he's been in contact with the terrorists inside the mall and that they are not backing down. There will be no negotiations. Witnesses say the terrorists were on a mission to kill non-Muslims, ordering shoppers to speak Arabic or recite a verse from the Quran in order to save their lives. Now we can see the mall entrance just down the street and as you can see there some military police, we see ambulances that continue to go in and out of the mall. Officials have continuously come by to tell us to duck, to seek cover. And just to give you an idea of how tense the situation is as far as the injuries, the more than 175 people injured, they got more than a thousand pints of blood donated. Yesterday they're still asking for more donations. The situation out here very fluid.