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Kenyan troops and armoured vehicles have crossed into neighbouring Somalia, residents say, in pursuit of militants suspected of a spate of kidnappings.
Witnesses said up to 40 Kenyan vehicles carrying soldiers had passed through the Somali town of Dhobley, near the border. Tanks were also reported.
Kenya has said its troops were going after al-Shabab militants.
But a Somali diplomat at the UN told the BBC that if the reports were true it would be a violation of sovereignty.
Several Westerners have been seized in Kenya by suspected Somali militants and taken into Somalia.
Two Spanish aid workers were abducted from Kenya's sprawling Dadaab refugee camp on Thursday.
A British woman and a French woman have been kidnapped from remote beach resorts over the past month, dealing a major blow to Kenya's tourism industry.
'Air strikes'
Kenyan government spokesman Alfred Mutua, said on Sunday that Kenyan troops were "pursuing al-Shabab across the border", AP reported.
Continue reading the main story AnalysisEyewitness reports say there's a heavy military presence inside Somalia of Kenyan personnel including air power.
From the Somali government 's point of view it will want to send out a message that it can cope with things on its own, that it doesn't want more foreign troops in Somalia - there are already Ugandan and Burrundian propping up the government in Mogadishu - so it's a bit embarrassing in a way to then have another country coming in to help out.
From the Kenyan point of view it's trying to send out a message that it's very serious about security, the Kenyan government says it's going after al-Shabab because it thinks that al-Shabab was behind the recent kidnappings.
It's a message aimed at the Kenyan population to say 'look, we can still fight, we can still defend our country'.
The BBC's Will Ross, in Nairobi, says there are reports that Kenyan military helicopters have been carrying out raids in Somalia.
Senior Somali military commander Abdi Yusuf told Reuters news agency that warplanes had attacked two al-Shabab bases in southern Somalia but could not confirm if the jets were Kenyan.
"I can't identify the military aircraft, but our neighbour Kenya is fully supporting us militarily and our mission is to drive al-Shabab out of the region," he said.
In response, al-Shabab - the radical Islamist insurgent group in Somalia - tried to raise the alarm in the areas it controls, the Associated Press reported.
Residents in the southern town of Qoqani said militants were going into people's homes and forcibly recruiting new fighters, the agency said.
Senior al-Shabab figure Sheikh Hassan Turki vowed to repel the Kenyan forces.
"Kenya violated the territorial rights of Somalia by entering our holy land, but I assure you that they will return disappointed, God willing," he said.
"Mujahideen fighters will force them to test the pain of the bullets."
Civilian fears
Somalia's ambassador to Kenya, Mohammed Ali Nur, has denied Kenyan forces have crossed the border.
The first secretary of Somalia's mission to the UN, Omar Jamal: "Somalia is in a serious crisis"
Somalia's UN envoy, Omar Jamal, said if confirmed, a military incursion by Kenya would be "a very serious territorial intrusion by a foreign country".
"We understand the Kenyan concerns very well," he said.
"However if any action is to be taken. the Somali government has to be on the same page, the Somali government has to be informed, the Somali government has to know exactly in many details what is going on, otherwise it will be a different story."
Our correspondent says some Kenyans fear their country could become a target for more al-Shabab attacks if it becomes more deeply embroiled in Somalia's conflict.
The development comes days after the two Spanish aid workers with Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), named as Blanca Thiebaut and Montserrat Serra, were taken from Dadaab, the world's largest refugee camp.
Just 80km (50 miles) from the Somali border, Dadaab currently houses nearly half a million refugees, most of whom are Somalis who have fled conflict and famine.
A Kenyan driver working for the Care charity was abducted from Dadaab on 21 September.
Last month, 56-year-old Briton Judith Tebbutt was kidnapped - and her husband David killed - by gunmen while the couple were on holiday in a remote Kenyan resort at Kiwayu.
On 1 October, a 66-year-old French woman was seized by an armed gang on Kenya's northern resort island of Manda and taken to Somalia.
The UK Foreign Office has advised against all but essential travel to the Kenyan coast near the Somali border.
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