Death toll in Al-Shabaab attack on Kenya university climbs to 70

Death toll in Al-Shabaab attack on Kenya university climbs to 70

Masked gunmen from Al-Shabaab, an Al-Qaeda splinter group attacked Garissa University College in Kenya, reportedly killing 70 and injuring 79. Gunshots and explosions were heard, and those calling from the university say they have seen many casualties. 

At least 70 people were killed and 79 injured in the Kenya university siege, which is almost over, according to the interior minister Joseph Nkaissery, Reuters reported. 

"We are finding it difficult to access the compound because some of the attackers are on top of a building and are firing at us whenever we try to gain entry," said a policeman at the university campus in Garissa. At least sixty-five people have been injured in the attack, at least four of them critically, Kenya's disaster officials said. 

Of 815 students from the attacked university, 280 have been accounted for, but Kenya’s disaster agency hasn’t given a number of those trapped inside. Somali Islamist group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility for the assault saying it is holding Christians hostage inside the university. 

Two gunmen from Somalia's Al-Shabaab Islamist fighters group were killed by Kenyan troops, the interior ministry said, according to AFP. 

"Two terrorists have been neutralized in the ongoing operation, and security agencies [are intensifying the] rescue operation," the interior ministry said in a statement. The gunmen allegedly entered the university as students were heading to morning prayers, Standard Media outlet reported. 

The attackers reportedly posed as worshipers among the students, and then started shooting at them indiscriminately. Students who escaped the attack have told security forces there are at least five gunmen, holding many others as hostages inside. Conflicting reports on Twitter put the death toll at seven. According to some accounts, the gunmen were also wearing suicide vests. 

 A heavy police and military presence is seen near the university. Just over a week ago a terror threat alert was issued for Kenyan universities, Twitter users report. Local senior security officials confirmed the assault on the university, saying there have been threats from a terror group. 

“We had the threats earlier on and alerted the institutions here,” said an anonymous security official, as quoted by Standard Media. Kenyan police have issued a dusk to dawn (from 6.30 pm till 6.30 am) curfew in four regions near the Somalia border, as a security precaution following the attack, Reuters reported. In the past, the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Somali terror group Al-Shabaab has conducted several attacks in Garissa and throughout Kenya, the biggest assault being an attack on a shopping mall in Nairobi in 2013.

-RT