File photo shows Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto (C) checks the wreckage of vehicles outside the town of Naivasha, Kenya on Dec. 11, 2016. (Xinhua/Pan Siwei)

ELDORET, Kenya, July 29 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan authorities have sent more security officers to flush out an unknown number of attackers still trapped inside Deputy President William Ruto's rural home on Saturday.

Sources at the scene said the officers from the elite squad, Recce Squad have been sent to the home as two gunmen and a police officer were killed in the attack on Ruto's Sugoi home.

"We could still hear more gunshots in the compound and a police helicopter hovers over the home. The police have sent more reinforcement as gunshots continue to rent the air," said the police officer who did not want to be named.

Rift Valley regional coordinator Wanyama Musiambo and Uasin Gishu county commissioner Abdi Hassan are among security chiefs at the scene.

The sources said three gunmen ambushed the guards shortly after Ruto left for a political rally with President Uhuru Kenyatta in Kitale.

Workers and paramilitary police officers manning the home were the only ones at the residence at the time. A police officer guarding the gate was shot and injured and his gun snatched before fighting began.

Sources said a police in charge of the home's security was killed, adding that gunmen are Somalis and that they had pretended to be selling sheets.

Police have cordoned off the home as they suspect the attackers are within the compound. Members of the public were barred from accessing the heavily guarded home.

The deputy president is the second most guarded government official in the country after the president and his home is usually under a 24-hour watch by the paramilitary police officers.