Plainclothes police investigators collect evidence in paper bags at a blast site in Nairobi June 11, 2007. Several people are feared dead after an explosion hit Nairobi's city center on early Monday. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

NAIROBI, June 11 (Xinhua) -- Several people are feared dead after an explosion hit Nairobi's city center on early Monday.

    Eyewitnesses reported seeing more bodies being rushed in ambulances.

    Earlier, Police Commissioner Maj.Gen. Hussein Ali said at least one person was killed following the blast which went off shortly after 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) at a restaurant near a three-star Ambassador Hotel in the downtown.

    The cause of the blast was not clear, but Ali said"it was something that somebody was carrying."

    "It was something that somebody was carrying that exploded. We have not established what it was but investigations are underway to find the cause," Ali told journalists at the chaotic scene.

    An eyewitness, James Mwangi, reported seeing two bodies and some limbs at the scene which is 500 meters away from the former site of United States embassy which was bombed in 1998.

    "There was a man who had dropped from a bus and then headed into a restaurant with a polythene paper bag on his hands. The guards stopped him from entering the restaurant because he was wearing something that looked suspicious," said Mwangi at the scene.

    "It was after this altercation that a loud explosion occurred. I could see personal items and window glasses strewn all over the place. Initially I thought it was a tyre burst but it was louder than that," he said

    The area is also next to a bus stage for public service vehicles plying several city routes and most of the injured were caught up as they waited for transport to various city destinations.

    The police have sealed off the scene as bomb experts are leading in the evacuation and recovery efforts.

    The bomb experts are using police sniffer dogs to comb the area for further explosives as medical support services are on standby.

    Sources said it was a suicide bomber who detonated a bomb but this has not been confirmed by the police.

    Doctors at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) said they have received at least 31 victims of the blast who are under treatment.

    "So far we have received 31 patients who were injured at the site of the incident. Some of them have lost blood and have fractured limbs. Six are in serious condition," said Kariuki Chege,the KNH spokesman.

    "Out of the 31 there are six with serious injured whom we have managed to take to the theatre. No body has died here so far,"Chege said.

    The East African nation was last hit by bomb in 1998 when the United States embassy in downtown of the capital Nairobi was brought down.

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