Friday, August 7, 1998 Published at 09:49 GMT 10:49 UK
US embassies hit in African blasts
Rescuers pull a blast victim from the rubble in Nairobi
Around 80 people are known to have died in two powerful explosions near US embassies in Kenya and neighbouring Tanzania.
The first wrecked an area around the embassy and central bank in Nairobi, Kenya.
The US State Department said both explosions were caused by bombs and blamed terrorists. But it is not known who is responsible.
Red Cross officials say that at least 60 people died in the Nairobi blast at 10.35am local time. US sources in Washington say six Americans were among the dead.
A search for survivors continues and Kenyan police say that the death toll in Nairobi could be as high as 80 with about 1,100 injured.
US medical and security teams are flying to Africa.
The Cooperative Bank building, where US Ambassador Prudence Bushnell was meeting Kenyan Trade Minister Joseph Kamotho, felt the full force.
The US ambassador was slightly injured.
Volunteers worked furiously to pull survivors from the rubble.
Rufus Drabble, from the British High Commission, said there was a cloud of thick smoke over the city and helicopters hovered overhead.
Kenyan TV had shown "horrendous" pictures of the incident, he added.
He says that radio reports from inside the US embassy called for medical help and lifting gear.
Hundreds of people reportedly fled the building as emergency services and armed police raced to the scene.
The bank building, on Haile Selassie Avenue, contains private and government offices.
There was also widespread devastation in Dar es Salaam, where a BBC correspondent said the embassy reception area had been destroyed.
He said British diplomats had offered to help the US embassy and the French and Spanish embassies, which are also near the site of the explosion.
Survivor Jim Owens said the blast at the Tanzanian embassy threw him back about five feet.
"They bled over my glasses so I couldn't see as I was walking around the smoke-filled embassy."
In the Ugandan capital, Kampala, personnel at the US embassy and the British High Commission were evacuated from the buildings, apparently as a precautionary measure.