(CNN) – As of about midnight Saturday, 293 people wounded in an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall had been admitted to area hospitals, Kenyan Cabinet secretary Francis Kimemia tweeted. Kimemia added that "hospitals are appealing for more blood." "The response is incredible but more is needed," he said. The death toll in this hostage situation has risen to atleast 39 people according to Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in a televised address Saturday.
Those hundreds injured in Saturday's attack at a Nairobi, Kenya, shopping mall "range in age from as young as 2 years old to as old as 78," the Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre said.
Five hostages have been released from Nairobi's Westgate Mall, the Kenya National Disaster Operation Centre said early Sunday morning. The government agency called this development "positive," while adding the "siege continues."
Somalia's president sent condolences Saturday to the people of neighboring Kenya in the wake of a mass shooting earlier in the day in a shopping mall in Nairobi. "These heartless acts against defenseless civilians, including innocent children, are beyond the pale and cannot be tolerated," President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said in a statement. "We stand shoulder to shoulder with Kenya in its time of grief for these lives lost and the many injured."
Kenya's Deputy President H.E. William Ruto in a statement Saturday said, "the Government will bring the siege to end" at a mall in the capital where authorities say gunmen have taken hostages. He called the gunmen's deadly attack a "cowardly and dastardly act." He commiserated with families whose loved ones were injured or killed, he said.
Members of Al-Shabaab -- the militant group linked to al Qaeda that's claimed responsibility for Saturday's deadly mall attack in Kenya -- tweeted that "there will be no negotiations whatsoever" at the mall.
American citizens are among the dozens injured Saturday in an attack on an upscale mall in the Kenyan capital, said State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf. "We condemn this senseless act of violence that has resulted in death and injury for many innocent men, women, and children. Our condolences go out to the families and friends of all victims," she said.
