Nairaobi Airport Closes As Fire Crews Tackle Blaze

A huge fire has broken out at the main international airport in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) said Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) had been closed and passengers evacuated.

Cabinet secretary for transport Michael Kamau said the fire was "very severe" and urged people to stay away from the airport.

Images showed flames raging from one of the main buildings.

The interior ministry tweeted that an evacuation of the entire airport was under way, with only essential personnel remaining, but said the fire had been contained.

There have been no reports of any casualties and the cause of the fire is not clear.

Jomo Kenyatta International Airport is an important regional hub for East Africa, with many long-distance flights landing there to connect to countries across the region.

 The airport is the main gateway for European tourists and is also crucial for the country's key flower export industry, so the fire could have a huge economic impact, says the BBC's Emmanual Igunza at the scene.
Water 'shortage'

Dark smoke could be seen billowing into the sky across much of Nairobi as the fire - which began at approximately 04:30 local time (01:30 GMT) - took hold.

James Ole Lenku: "We will make sure that we establish the true cause of the fire. As of now we don't know what's happened"

The first fire engines arrived as late as 07:00, our correspondent says - by which time the blaze was ravaging the arrivals hall.

Kenya's police and fire units are poorly resourced and the state response was supplemented by the Red Cross and private security firms including - airport authorities said - the British multinational company G4S.

Some witnesses also said traffic jams had prevented emergency vehicles getting through.

Nairobi resident Barry Fisher - who had hoped to travel to Ethiopia on Wednesday - described the scene as chaotic.

"There was no one stopping any traffic going to the road to the airport," he told AP news agency.

"A number of fire trucks and ambulances were trying to negotiate their way through the lane... They were trying to weave their way through a solid two lanes of cars."

The government also admitted that firefighters had run "dangerously low on water" and water tankers had had to be sent to bolster supplies.