Nairobi's Westgate mall, with its designer shops and restaurants, has become a symbol of Kenya's rising prosperity. On Saturday, September 21, it became the scene of one of the most chilling attacks in East Africa's history, claiming the lives of at least 69 people.

Nairobi-based AFPTV journalist Nichole Sobecki was the only television journalist able to gain access to the Westgate mall, just after the attack started. Following is her account of the horrific events:

The International Criminal Court on Monday excused Kenyan Vice President William Ruto from his crimes against humanity trial for a week so he can deal with the Nairobi militant attack.

"In the light of the circumstances... the Chamber does excuse Mr Ruto from the proceedings before the court... for one week only," Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji said at an urgent hearing.

Kenyan security forces were locked in a fierce, final battle with Somali Islamist gunmen inside an upmarket Nairobi shopping mall on Monday as huge explosions and a barrage of heavy gunfire echoed out of the complex.

Thick black smoke billowed for several hours from the Westgate mall as Kenyan officials said the more than two-day-long siege -- in which the gunmen have massacred at least 62 people and taken dozens more hostage -- was close to being resolved.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that the deadly mall siege in Kenya had highlighted the gravity of the threat posed by Somali militants.

Kerry said he had spoken with Somalia's foreign minister and ambassador to Washington earlier in the day about the attack on a Nairobi shopping mall.

Five Americans were among those wounded when Somali militants stormed a Nairobi shopping mall, according to a statement by the U.S. State Department on Sunday.

"A number of American citizens were present in Westgate Shopping Mall at the time of the attack. Five American citizens are among the injured, but we have no reports of any American deaths," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement.

A senior U.S. lawmaker on Sunday called for careful surveillance of the American Somali community in the wake of a deadly militant attack on a Kenyan shopping mall.

Peter King, chairman of the House of Representatives committee on counterterrorism and intelligence, said up to 20 Americans are currently members of Somalia's Shebab militia.

Three Britons have been confirmed dead in an attack on a Nairobi shopping mall by Somali Islamist militants and the British toll is likely to rise, the Foreign Office in London said Sunday.

"Three British nationals are confirmed dead. The next of kin of those nationals have been informed," a ministry spokesman said. "The number of British nationals confirmed as killed is likely to rise as further information becomes available."

Fierce gunfire could be heard coming from inside Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall Sunday, an AFP correspondent at the scene said, adding that two wounded Kenyan soldiers were evacuated from the complex and taken away by ambulance.

Kenyan security forces have been battling to end the siege in the upmarket mall for more than 20 hours, after fighters from Somalia's Al Qaida-linked Shebab group stormed the mall in an attack that killed at least 39 people and wounded 150 more.

Kenyan troops and Somali militants were locked in a hostage stand-off inside an upmarket Nairobi shopping mall early Sunday, after the Islamist gunmen stormed the complex and massacred 39 people and wounded 150.

Kenyan officials said "major operations" were underway with police and soldiers engaged in an apparent final bid to put an end to the 17-hour-long battle. The Kenyan government said an unknown number of hostages were trapped in several locations in the Westgate mall.

At least 41 people were killed Thursday in a bus crash west of the Kenyan capital Nairobi, the Kenyan Red Cross said.

"It is a horrible scene. Bodies are strewn all over," traffic police official Samuel Kimaru said by telephone from the scene near the town of Narok.