NAIROBI (AFP) - The Kenyan police said on Saturday that only between four and six armed men, not 10 to 15 as earlier thought, conducted the September attack on a Nairobi shopping mall that left 67 dead.

"From what we have now that is coming out of the investigation, the number of attackers was between four to six," police chief David Kimaiyo told Kenyan television station KTN.

"None of them managed to escape from the building after the attack," he said, implying that they were killed in the confrontation.

During the 80-hour siege that began on Sept 21, Kenyan officials said that between 10 and 15 gunmen were involved, and later claimed to have killed five of them.

Witnesses in the mall described how the fighters stormed the complex at midday on that Saturday when it was crowded with shoppers, firing from the hip and hurling grenades at shoppers and staff.

CCTV camera footage from one part of the mall showed only four young men ambling around with AK-47 rifles in hand.

Mr Kimaiyo also confirmed that wanted British "White Widow" Samantha Lewthwaite - reported to have been one of the attackers - was not involved.

"On Samantha we have also established that she was not part of the attackers in the building. There was no woman."