Suspected Al Shabaab militants carjack and escape with 2 vehicles in Lamu

Lamu, Kenya: Suspected Al Shabaab militants Friday carjacked and escaped with two vehicles that had miraa near Kiunga border, Lamu County. The fate of five crew who were on board was not immediately known.

An agent in the area Abdulahi Liban said the gunmen struck at about midday as the four wheel drive vehicles were headed for Somalia and took them hostage. Liban said they later found several sacks of the miraa that the vehicles were carrying damped in the area few kilometers away from the scene of the attack.

"We are yet to know where our colleagues are so far. They took the two vehicles that had miraa that we were taking to Somalia," said Liban on the phone.

The attack is the second one to happen in the same area following the other one that occurred in August in which one Kenyan driver was found beheaded after a similar incident. Two vehicles that the deceased and his colleagues had after dropping miraa in Somalia are yet to be recovered.

Friday, police who asked not to be named said a hunt on the vehicles was on but added they suspected they had crossed to Somalia.

"Such an attack is usually well planned and it is my believe they are in Somalia now," said a senior officer who asked not to be named.