Smoke started billowing from the building shortly after blasts were heard..
The Kenyan interior minister said security forces were gaining an advantage over the militants
Earlier, police took cover during periods of heavy gunfire
Volunteer paramedics were also sent running when gunfire was heard
Repeated threats
More than 1,000 people were inside the mall complex when the attack began on Saturday.
Dr Sunil Sachdeva, a dentist who runs a clinic inside the mall, described the scene as the attack unfolded. "There was a tent where a cookery competition for children was carrying on and there were bodies lying under there," he told the BBC.
"There's a very famous radio presenter in Kenya, she was shot. The scene was carnage and there was a guy lying right in the corner. He was cut to shreds." Prominent Ghanaian poet Kofi Awoonor - who was attending a literary festival in Nairobi - also died, as did a Chinese woman.
French, Dutch, South African, Indian and Canadian nationals are also among the foreigners confirmed killed, along with a dual Australian-British national. Thousands of Kenyans have been responding to appeals for blood donations. Al-Shabab says it carried out the attack in response to Kenyan military operations in Somalia.
The group, which is part of the al-Qaeda network, has repeatedly threatened attacks on Kenyan soil if Nairobi did not pull its troops out of Somalia. There are about 4,000 Kenyan troops in the south of Somalia, where they have been fighting the militants since 2011, as part of an African Union force supporting Somali government forces. Al-Shabab is fighting to create an Islamic state in Somalia.
Despite being pushed out of key cities in the past two years, it still remains in control of smaller towns and large swathes of the countryside.
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