Tourist killed in Mombasa, second in July – police

NAIROBI (Reuters) – A German female tourist was killed in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa on Thursday in the same area where a Russian visitor was murdered earlier in July by a criminal gang, police sources said.

Kenya’s coast has been the scene of a series of bombings and shootings by militants and gunmen that have left dozens of Kenyans dead in recent months. Some Western nations have warned against travel to Mombasa because of the violence.

“A female tourist was shot in Kibokoni area,” Robert Sicharani, head of Tourist Police Unit in Kenya’s Coast region, told Reuters, adding that the case was being investigated. “She was confirmed dead at the hospital,” he said.

He did not give details about the woman’s identity but a police source, who asked not to be named, said she was a 28-year-old German and that she had not been robbed. The source said her Ugandan male companion was injured in the attack.

A Russian woman was killed by a gang which had robbed her companions earlier in July in the same area, which lies near Mombasa’s historic Fort Jesus.

A German Foreign Office spokesman in Berlin said they were investigating but could give no details.

(Reporting by Joseph Akwiri; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Alison Williams)