A deadly siege by suspected militants in Nairobi has ended after all the attackers were “eliminated”, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta has said.

Gunmen attacked a compound in the Westlands district of Kenya’s capital on Tuesday, killing at least 14 people.

The Somalia-based militant group al-Shabab said it was behind the attack.

Two people believed to be linked to Tuesday’s siege on the complex, which houses the luxury DusitD2 hotel, have been arrested, officials said. It is not clear how many attackers there were, but Kenyan police chief Joseph Boinnet told AFP news agency that “five terrorists” had been involved.

Confirming an end to the security operation at Dusit during a televised address, Mr Kenyatta said that 14 people had been killed and many more were injured, but that 700 others were safely evacuated.

He added that “every person that was involved in the funding, planning and execution of this heinous act” would be “relentlessly” pursued.

Separately, the Kenyan Red Cross said that 50 people remain unaccounted for.

After 19 hours of terror, gunfire, bloodshed and inevitable confusion, the siege at an upmarket hotel and business complex in the hills west of Nairobi’s central business district ended abruptly on Wednesday morning.

Throughout the night, cowering groups of civilians – many had spent hours hiding in their offices or in bathrooms – were escorted to safety by security forces amid sporadic bursts of gunfire and the boom of explosions that continued well beyond dawn.

On the crowded street outside the large, upmarket complex, friends and relatives embraced those who emerged and thanked Kenyan security forces.