ELDORET, Kenya, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan police on Sunday killed a lone attacker who stormed into Deputy President William Ruto's rural home in Eldoret on Saturday, ending an 18-hour siege.
"The assailant has been shot dead and the weapon he had snatched was recovered from him. The siege is over," Inspector General of Police Joseph Boinnet said, 18 hours after the dramatic incident.
Local police officers said the man was killed at about 6:00 am (1500 GMT) Sunday by paramilitary police who were flown from Nairobi for the operation.
Multiple gunshots, loud bangs could be heard from the heavily fortified deputy president's home in Sugoi on Sunday morning.
A source said that at first paramilitary officers could not proceed to the house where the attacker was holding their colleague as human shield, resulting in an extended siege.
But other sources said the attacker killed a police officer he was holding hostage overnight.
"We have two bodies here. One is the assailant and another is an police officer who was stabbed and held as a shield," said a witness.
Ruto spent the night at his rural Sugoi home before leaving Saturday around 11:00 a.m. (2000 GMT) to accompany President Uhuru Kenyatta for a series of political campaigns in northwest Kenya.
On Saturday night, the intruder entered the farm complex after stabbing the police officer at the gate. The attacker was alone and armed with a machete, not a firearm as earlier reported, according to Boinett.
One police officer was injured, and is now undergoing treatment in a stable condition, he said.
The motive of the attacker was not known yet, and investigations have been launched into the assault, the police chief added.
Neither the deputy president nor any member of his family was at the house when the attack occurred.
