Kenyan police arrest suspect in grenade attack

NAIROBI (AFP) - Kenyan police have arrested a man suspected to have taken part in a grenade attack on a restaurant in the coastal city of Mombasa that killed one, police chief Mathew Iteere told journalists Wednesday.

The suspect is one of the three people injured in Tuesday evening's attack, when armed men opened fire and threw explosives into a busy bar and restaurant.

"The suspect is one of those injured. He is now under police guard," Iteere told a press conference in the Kenyan capital.

Iteere said the suspect had booked a bus ticket to leave Mombasa soon after the attack.

"We have retrieved a bus ticket from him and when our officers went to the bus station they found his luggage which had a magazine loaded with eight rounds of ammunition," he said.

"We also got a laptop from him which we are analysing," he added, noting that police had been watching the suspect for some time and were looking for him "in connection with various other attacks."

In the attack one gunman opened fire when guards at the Bella Vista restaurant prevented him and two accomplices from entering the popular bar, before the accomplices hurled two grenades and fled.

One of the grenades exploded near the entrance to the restaurant and the other near a car parked outside.