Eyewitnesses said a vehicle drove up to the Mombasa Paradise Hotel and forced its way in, unleashing a huge explosion soon after a group of Israeli tourists had arrived for a holiday.

I saw people covered with blood... Everyone seemed to be screaming

Jerusalem Post reporter

The four-wheel drive vehicle's passengers - described by some reports as "of Arabic origin" - are reported to have argued with hotel guards before breaking through the hotel barrier.

Local dancers had been greeting the overnight arrivals from Israel in the hotel lobby before the blast.

"People were cut up in the legs, arms, all over their bodies," a woman who was with in the lobby told Israel radio by phone.

"Everything was burned up," she added.

Herded onto beach

"The entire building shook," said a reporter from the Jerusalem Post, an Israeli newspaper, who had just started a holiday at the Israeli-owned hotel.

"I saw people covered with blood, including children. Everyone seemed to be screaming," Kelly Hartog said.

Guests were evacuated to the beach, but there was no medical help there and no drinkable water, she added.

A doctor among the tourists gave some of the victims first aid, saying most were cut by flying glass.

Nimrod Grissarov told Israeli radio he had personally treated three victims he said had suffered "moderate" wounds to the head and kidney.

Another Israeli, who owns a nearby hotel, told the radio station:

"I can see the bodies of local residents.... There is a lot of smoke. The whole hotel is burned totally, both wings, the lobby and everything, it's all burned."

The hotel explosion coincided with a failed missile attack on an Israeli passenger aircraft which had just taken off from Mombasa airport.

The BBC's Cathy Jenkins in Nairobi says the attacks appear to be timed to cause maximum possible Israeli casualties.